Elon Musk believes Twitter revenue will double thanks to paid users

The new boss of Twitter, Elon Musk believes, will make up to $10 billion in revenue from paid services by 2028, more than double Twitter’s $5 billion in revenue last year.

In a statement, Musk told investors what to expect under his ownership. This reportedly includes Twitter Blue subscribers growing to 69 million by 2025, which could reach 159 million by 2028.

Twitter Blue is a service that was launched last year. The service, which costs $2.99/month, gives users access to an undo tweet button, app customization, ad-free posts, and other exclusive features.

Musk expects the total number of Twitter users to also grow strongly, from 217 million reported last year to 600 in 2025 and finally to 931 million in 2028.

Besides Blue, Twitter also has plans for another service called “X”. Musk expects 9 million subscribers by 2023 and 104 million by 2028. “X” is expected to account for a large portion of the $26.4 billion in total revenue that Musk thinks the service will achieved in the same year 2028.

According to the Times, Twitter is supposed to generate the rest of its projected total revenue with advertising, which Musk predicts Twitter will make around $12 billion through 2028.

In the past, “Blue Bird” used to depend on advertising as its main source of revenue. Musk once analyzed, Twitter should remove ads for paid subscribers, he wants ads to make up only 45% of Twitter’s total revenue.

According to The Times, Musk also hopes Twitter will earn an unspecified share of revenue through data licensing, a business that involves selling millions of daily tweets on its platform to public companies. Companies and developers analyze data to gain insights into markets or consumer trends.

Last year, Twitter made $572 million (PDF) from data licensing and “other revenue,” but it’s unclear if Musk plans to expand this business. If Twitter were to resell individual tweets, Elon “would have to completely change the terms of service” of Twitter, according to editor-in-chief Nilay Patel (the Verge)

Not to mention facing revenue sharing and legal use rights issues, because the copyright of the tweets belongs to the user who posted them.

Thai Hoang (according to The Verge)