Elon Musk’s X/Twitter is now planning to sell off coveted inactive account handles for hefty prices under the direction of owner Elon Musk. The most desirable usernames are expected to sell for $50,000.
Forbes reports that according to emails obtained by an anonymous source, Elon Musk’s X/Twitter has started a program to sell unused Twitter handles, the usernames that defines an account. A team called the “@Handle Team” has been emailing select users offers to sell coveted handles for a set price of $50,000 each.
Elon Musk looks puzzled (Anadolu Agency/Getty)
The source said the emails noted that X had recently updated its handle policies and fees. This handle-selling initiative has been rumored since late last year, when Musk posted about freeing up handles taken by “bots and trolls.” Selling popular one-word handles left inactive for years could generate substantial revenue for the company.
Elon Musk’s company has been rumored to be working on a program to free up social media handles from bots and trolls for several months now. As early as November 2022, Musk mentioned on the social media platform that a large number of handles were taken by bots and trolls. He stated that he planned to start freeing them up from the next month onwards. In response to this, a user suggested creating a “Handle Marketplace” where people could sell their accounts to each other, with the platform taking a fee.
During Musk’s tenure as owner of X/Twitter, the platform has suffered a dropoff in active users. As Breitbart News previously reported:
X/Twitter has experienced a significant loss of users and advertisers during the first year under Elon Musk’s ownership, according to recent data. This decline is evident in several key metrics. Global app downloads for X have plummeted by approximately 38 percent between October 2022 and September 2023 according to an analysis by Sensor Tower. In the U.S. alone, mobile app downloads saw a sharper decline, falling by 57 percent during the same period. Another app analysis firm, Data.AI, has released similar figures.
Furthermore, the platform’s monthly active Android users have decreased, with a drop of 14.8 percent globally and 17.8 percent for U.S. mobile users year-over-year for September according to SimilarWeb. Another concerning statistic is the increase in user churn, or users who stop using the app, which has surged by more than 30 percent year-over-year as of September 2023 per Sensor Tower.
Read more at Forbes here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.