I understand that you want me to rewrite the text you provided to make it clearer. Here's my attempt:
I have a confession: I subscribe to Elon Musk's social network, X (formerly Twitter). My friend asked me why I was giving money to the richest man in the world, but I have two reasons. First, I wanted to verify my account and avoid fake profiles. Second, I wanted access to X’s AI chatbot, Grok, and signing up was the easiest way to do it. I paid for the subscription myself, and the BBC did not mention it.
Customers with X have a mixed reputation and some established users don't like the idea of "buying your way in". This means paying for extra visibility and profile instead of putting up good content and getting it. To avoid this, customers have the option to hide the "blue tick" that appears next to their name once they have registered.
Signing up has improved my platform experience. I can now write and edit longer articles with fewer ads. However, as a paying customer, I am more than happy with spam and bots plaguing the platform. According to former advertising executive Johnny Ryan, who is now a senior member of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, it is easier to please advertisers than clients Generally, content that has in the 19th century are not so involved in politics.
There's a saying, "If you don't pay for the product, you're the product": If you use something for free, the company that owns it may collect your data and use it to advertise to you If it's a business model it makes a lot of money , but more technology companies are seeing subscriptions as a viable options. "Data is the new oil!" There was a buzzword in the tech industry a few years ago, but this may be changing as tech companies explore different business models.
Six months ago, Meta introduced an ad-free subscription model for Facebook and Instagram in Europe. Mobile devices cost €13 ($14; £11) per month, the average cost of Internet service. The tech giant declined to tell me how many people have signed up so far. Now, this was obviously in line with the new EU rules on consumer choice. However, it came back: Meta is currently under investigation because the EU Commission says two decisions of funding or data may not be enough.
Snapchat Plus, along with an ad-free option still to come, reached one million subscribers within weeks of its launch in June 2022. And in 2023, YouTube premium service, which offers ad-free streaming, reached 100 million users without Fear of when it's coming', something I need in my life," James Hacking, founder of media company Socially Powerful, was a founder of his has been involved with YouTube for a long time On the other hand, Netflix has launched cheaper subscriptions with ads, Amazon Prime has introduced ads on its video platform, and now charges extra for them of the users (who are already subscribed) to remove it again Johnny Ryan believes that this hybrid model represents the worst of both worlds if they see advertising and money the pay is "miraculous," he says.
Azeem Azhar, founder of tech-themed subscription newsletter Exponential View, says "There are no new customers to acquire, so you have to know how to engage them." revenue to your business.
But, he warns, it’s important to tread carefully, especially on social networks.
"If everyone had to pay, you'd have far fewer people using it - so there'd be less engagement, so it wouldn't be very desirable," he adds. "It strikes a balance between the need for casual users to re-share and create content, and people willing to pay more for a slightly better experience." Perhaps this is a lesson X has already learned - a few days after launching the subscription model, it offered free premium account status for all accounts with over 100,000 followers, and has now expanded to include anyone a has more than 2,500 premium followers This comes as more channels have successfully migrated to subscription funding. Many of them sit comfortably behind a paywall. It has been particularly successful in Scandinavia - last year Reuters reported that 33% of Swedes paid for online news.
Mr Azhar has around 100,000 subscribers on Substack - a platform that connects creators and audiences. It’s free to publish, and Substack charges a 10% commission on paid subscriptions, and an additional 3% transaction fee for payment system Stripe. "You have to be consistent - you have to keep showing up - it's important to create a trend in your readers," says SubStack founder Hamish McKenzie on the secret to a successful account "They will connect with you." , and then you have to keep their confidence respectful of their opinion." The thing you have to do - unlike the advertising game - you have to be honest and not abuse their attention by snowballing with a bunch of things and distracting them from their day."
Mr. McKenzie believes there will one day be "huge competition" between social networks that take full subscriptions to all that content and individual producer models like Substack "It's a much better world when the audience is the consumer rather than the product," he said. he says.
