Twitter to charge businesses $1,000 a month to keep their gold checkmarks

Twitter intends to profit from businesses using the network by charging them $1,000 per month to maintain their gold checkmarks, according to The Information. 

As per a story by the outlet, brands that don't pay the $1,000 monthly cost will eventually lose their gold badges, though it is not clear when.

The outlet's review of internal conversations also reveals that Twitter is considering adding a $50 monthly fee to cover the cost of adding badges to each account connected to the company. The screenshot, which was published by social media expert Matt Navarra, appears to be an email exchange between Twitter product manager Evan Jones and an unidentified company.

“As an early access subscriber, you’ll get a gold checkmark for your organization and affiliation badges for its associates,” the email reads. “If you’d like to subscribe, Verified for Organizations is $1,000 per month, and $50 per additional affiliated handle per month with one month of free affiliations.”

Prior to the launch of its Verification for Organisations programme (formerly known as Blue for Business), which enables businesses to "verify and identify themselves on Twitter," Twitter released gold badges. 

It also enables businesses to add badges showing scaled-down versions of their Twitter profile images to accounts belonging to employees, executives, and anyone else connected to the company, for example, the tiny Twitter logo on Twitter product manager Esther Crawford's profile,

Navarra then provided another screenshot of a direct communication between a different company and a Twitter product manager, who once more confirmed the $1,000 monthly fee. 

Although it began granting early access to the programme last month, Twitter has yet to formally announce the subscription's price. 

The expensive subscription is just one of many modifications CEO Elon Musk has made to Twitter in an effort to increase sales and reduce the company's $12.5 billion debt. Musk has also begun charging users $8 a month for a blue checkmark and will soon start requiring developers to pay for access to Twitter's API after abruptly removing their apps from the network last month. 

In addition, Musk claims that creators are only eligible if they pay for Blue and that he will only share Twitter's ad earnings with them. The business has apparently been defaulting on rent in a number of locations, including Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, and has been auctioning off office equipment and other assets.