Twitter, which Elon Musk has owned since October, is getting ready to roll out a new program that will pay verified content producers for the adverts they include in their replies.
This future function was announced by billionaire businessman and Twitter owner Elon Musk on Friday, along with the disclosure of an initial payment block of about $5 million.
Only verified artists will be eligible for this program, according to Musk’s tweet, and only advertising displayed to verified users will be recorded.
FILE PHOTO: Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk walks next to Tesla’s Senior Vice President Tom Zhu and Vice President Grace Tao as he leaves a hotel in Beijing, China May 31, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
The move comes as Twitter struggles to keep advertisers, in part because of worries over ad placement in the wake of the company’s large personnel layoffs.
This development coincides with Twitter’s recent appointment of Linda Yaccarino as its CEO. Yaccarino, an advertising industry veteran from NBCUniversal, is expected to bring her extensive expertise to lead the social media platform in its advertising endeavours.
Earlier in March, Musk shared his vision for Twitter, stating that the messaging service currently generates around 5 to 6 cents per hour of user attention.
He expressed his belief that by incorporating more relevant and timely advertisements, this figure could potentially increase to 15 cents or even higher.
