Unsubscribing From Blue: Over half of Twitter Blue’s initial adopters cancel their subscriptions

New data suggests that Twitter Blue has been struggling more than previously disclosed since its launch almost six months ago. Since Elon Musk’s version of the subscription service was introduced in November 2022, Twitter has been able to convert only approximately 640,000 users into paying Twitter Blue subscribers by the end of April.

This number is not impressive, but what is even more concerning is that a large number of the service’s initial subscribers have cancelled their subscriptions. According to internal leaks published by the Washington Post, 150,000 users initially signed up for Twitter Blue within just a few days of its launch, but only about 68,157 of them maintained a paid subscription as of April 30.

It is worth noting that Twitter temporarily disabled new signups for about a month shortly after the launch due to accounts signing up for Blue with the intent to impersonate major brands on the platform.

Approximately 81,843 Twitter users, which is equivalent to 54.5 per cent of those who initially subscribed to Twitter Blue when it launched in November, have discontinued their subscription to the service. This churn rate is notably high for an online subscription service. The churn rate refers to the proportion of users who cancel their subscription.

A study by Recurly, a subscription management firm, published last year revealed that the average annual churn rate for subscription-based companies is only 5.57 per cent.

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It’s worth noting that not all of the 68,157 Twitter Blue subscribers since November have continuously maintained their subscriptions. Some of them may have terminated or allowed their subscription to expire at some point and then rejoined later.

In addition, there is a possibility that some of the users who appear to be subscribed have already terminated their subscription but are still receiving the benefits of Twitter Blue’s subscription service for free. In a previous report for Gizmodo, journalist Steven Monacelli spoke with several ex-Twitter Blue subscribers who, despite cancelling and not paying for months, cannot seem to rid themselves of their subscription and blue checkmark.

Twitter Blue is a paid service that offers premium features such as an edit tweet button, but it appears that the most appealing benefits for subscribers are the additional features provided by Musk, including the blue verification checkmark and algorithm boost.

This algorithm boost prioritizes Blue subscribers in the For You feed and replies to tweets. However, many Twitter Blue users have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with Musk regarding what they perceive as insufficient boosted reach. In March, Half of Twitter Blue subscribers have less than 1,000 followers.

The latest Twitter data from last month indicates that the percentage of Twitter Blue subscribers with a small number of followers remains relatively constant.

Currently, around 291,183 Twitter Blue subscribers have fewer than 1,000 followers, with approximately 107,492 having fewer than 100 followers. Moreover, roughly 3,352 paying subscribers have no followers at all.

If we focus solely on Twitter Blue subscribers who have continuously maintained their subscriptions since November, roughly 1,951 of them have less than 10 followers. In reality, so few large accounts that were verified under Twitter’s old verification system had subscribed to Twitter Blue that the company gave complimentary subscriptions to many users with at least 1 million followers.

This recent Twitter data is from developer Travis Brown, who has been monitoring Twitter Blue subscribers for months and shared his findings with Mashable. Brown’s research method captures approximately 90 per cent of all subscribers. In comparison to previous internal leaks from the company, such as the one from the Washington Post mentioned earlier, Brown’s data is quite similar to the official figures.

Regarding those Twitter Blue subscribers with a small number of followers, Brown stated that “these individuals have collectively paid Elon nearly $100k and have gained under 8k followers.”

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