When Twitter Blue was announced in June 2021, many hoped that it would bring a new dimension to how user experience would improve with the social media platform. However, Elon Musk’s take over of the company introduced new features to the app, including giving almost anyone willing to pay a premium subscription to become verified—whether they were either popular, influential or not.
With the announcement that the much coveted blue tick would be accessible to anyone who could pay, verification became for sale. However, not all countries where Twitter is accessible could get the subscription—Nigeria and South Africa were two of them.
Today, Nigerian and South African users woke up to see that Twitter Blue is now available in their countries for ₦5,000 and R144.99 per month, respectively. Previously, users in both countries who subscribed to the service used virtual private networks to gain access to other countries’ IP addresses where the service is available.
Image source: TechCabal
Twitter is offering a 12% discount to Nigerian users and a 13% discount to South African users if they choose the annual subscription, however, the prices for the subscription, based on device, are not uniform. Those subscribing on their iOS and Android devices pay the flat rate of ₦5,000 and R200.00 monthly, while those subscribing for the web service will pay ₦3,650 and R144.99 monthly.
For those who opt for the annual subscription, they get to pay ₦38,500 and R1,519 for web, while those on iOS and Android devices will pay ₦52,900 and R2,099. This has been the standard mode of pricing across all countries that have access to Twitter Blue.
While many users are contemplating if they’ll subscribe to the service for a blue tick, some are yet to see it on their devices. All they can see, despite being in the location, is that Twitter Blue is not yet available in their country.
Since the SpaceX and Tesla CEO took over the helm of affairs for $44 billion in October 2022, there have been drastic changes at the company, especially with the app. Twitter has split the timeline into two—‘For you’ and ‘Following’— but recently, users complained that they started seeing tweets from people they do not follow or that were retweeted to their timeline.
Many thought Twitter was taking the African market seriously by establishing a local office in Ghana, that was until Musk took over. The massive and sudden layoffs at the company also affected the Africa office which led TechCabal to ask if this is the cause of the spread of fake news on Nigerian Twitter. Meanwhile, Twitter Blue is not available in the country.
So far, Twitter Blue is now available in over 35 countries with more expected, which should help boost the revenue the company has been looking to earn to get turn it into a money maker. Twitter users, on the other hand, have expressed uncertainties about the instant changes on the app and how much they don’t want to see tweets from the Twitter landlord.
