Austin, October 16: Elon Musk planned to reduce the dependence on advertising revenue by boosting the X paid subscriptions. However, the plan is reportedly not going as per expectations. Elon Musk's company has been able to earn around USD 200 million through in-app purchases on both Android and iOS platforms since 2021. Before Elon Musk took over the platform and renamed it, the paid subscription was known as "Twitter Blue".

TechCrunch reported that the USD 200 million figure was revealed by Appfigures, an app intelligence firm. This third-party analysis showed that Elon Musk's X platform was not successful in achieving the stated targets. However, the report mentioned that the amount obtained was based on the purchases made via mobile app and did not include the figures from mobile or desktop web. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek Says Music Streaming Platform Expanded Audiobooks to Non-English Market for First Time, Elon Musk Reacts.

The report said that the firm said that X could have made around USD 140 million after it paid commissions for the respective app stores. It was mentioned that these figures would likely be higher due to the Apple and Google discount commission, which will be from 30% to 15% in 2024. TechCrunch said that Appfigures posted these figures without reliable calculations about how many subscriptions were associated with each commission rate. 

Elon Musk relaunched the 2021's Twitter Blue for paid X subscriptions to push the non-advertising revenue on the platform. The report said that the platform had secured USD 11 million via mobile subscriptions within the first three months, according to Sensor Tower's data. Unlike Twitter Blue, Elon Musk's X introduced three subscription options for the users - Basic, Premium and Premium Plus. 

The top X Premium Plus offers the customers additional perks like access to Grok AI, fewer ads and a verified blue tick. Appfigures said that Elon Musk's platform had grossed USD 14.7 million via in-app purchases on mobile devices, making them roughly around 1.3 million paid users. Further, the report said that X could have achieved 3.7 paid users this month. The report estimated that the platform could have around 3,68,000 Premium Basic users, 9,40,000 Premium users and 1,34,000 Premium Plus users. ‘Competing With Elon Musk Is No Easy Matter, Would Love To Partner With Tesla on Robotaxis’: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

Besides, the report said that there was no way to accurately know X's revenue generated. However, Bloomberg reported that X had earned USD 1.48 billion in total revenue during the first half of 2024. Based on Elon Musk's 200 million followers, 0.25% were subscribed to X, making a USD 2,00,000 per month revenue gross. 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 16, 2024 01:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).