Elon Musk has more than 24,700 paying subscribers to his account on Twitter, who give him 4 euros per month. This allows him to earn nearly 100,000 euros per month, without doing anything.
“There’s not much to see around here”: this is how Elon Musk presents the paid version of his Twitter account. This did not prevent 24,700 people from subscribing to it, for the sum of 4 euros per month (or 5 dollars per month). This is what the billionaire revealed by posting a screenshot of his own account on April 24, 2023. It shows the character “24.7k subscribers”, which means that he has between 24 700 and 24,799 subscribers.
The number of paid subscribers to Musk’s account was revealed by Musk himself
Twitter introduced the concept of “Super Follow” in June 2021: each Internet user with more than 10,000 subscribers can offer their subscribers to pay them a sum of money each month in exchange for exclusive content. Since Musk bought Twitter, the name has changed, but the concept is the same.
All paid subscribers to Twitter Blue (the $8 monthly subscription that includes longer tweets and the sacred blue tick) can activate the “Subscribe” option. Then, other Internet users can subscribe to his account, and see tweets that are only intended for them.
Who are the Twitter users who give Elon Musk €4 a month?
Twittos following Musk are identifiable in only one way: when they reply to his tweets, we see a small pink dot next to their name. Who are these Internet users who choose to pay 4 euros per month to the richest man on the planet? There are men and women, with an average of a hundred (free) subscribers. The majority of them have also subscribed to the Twitter Blue subscription and seem to be very fond of the billionaire and his projects. The profiles we explored talk a lot about NFT, entrepreneurship, cryptocurrency (especially doge, Musk’s favorite crypto), AI, are fans of other Elon Musk companies like Tesla and SpaceX.
Twittos who follow Elon Musk are identified with an additional small pink badge when commenting on his tweets
25,000 people around the world paying for little to no extra content sounds like an aberration. Observing the ecosystem that revolves around Elon Musk, however, gives some keys to understanding.
The billionaire — he was once the richest man in the world, recently surpassed again by Frenchman Bernard Arnault — has an extremely active and loyal fan base. He notably succeeded in cultivating it in the mid-2010s, when he began using Twitter in a frantic and haphazard fashion; thus nourishing a chaotic aesthetic, which contrasted with the image we had of wealthy bosses stuck in their suits.
Tesla, his electric vehicle company – which he bought and transformed into the most innovative manufacturer of an industry in its infancy – has a huge following, convinced that this is the future of mobility, and willing to spend large sums to access its products.
It’s through his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, that Musk also got into the habit of selling perfectly silly merchandise, like a perfume with the scent of burnt hair, a Tesla beer, a cyber whistle or even a flamethrower (through another company, The Boring Company). And it works: items are usually out of stock within hours.
The money that Elon Musk makes through these operations is negligible compared to his estimated fortune – around 180 billion dollars in the spring of 2023. It is nevertheless notable that the businessman earns more than a million dollars per year. year thanks to an option on Twitter, simply because Internet users wish to show him their affection.
TechAint 