• by Colin Kirkland , February 7, 2023

Elon Musk's Twitter paid verification program is not going well, to put it simply. According to a report from The Information, 180,000 people in the United States were paying for Twitter Blue subscriptions as of mid-January, which translates to less than 0.2% of monthly active users.

With 62% of the company's paying users residing in the U.S., Twitter has around 290,000 subscribers worldwide -- meaning that the social-media platform is making around $2.4 million per month from the program -- a number far from Musk’s desired revenue intake.

Originally, this past November, Musk wanted half of Twitter's revenue earnings to come from subscriptions, which would only be possible now were Twitter Blue's subscription price to increase by roughly eight times.

Twitter Blue regularly costs $8 a month -- $7 for those paying annually, and $11 for users paying via Apple's or Google's app stores (which, due to fees, still only gets Twitter $8).

With almost 300,000 subscribers worldwide, Twitter is on track to make around $28 million this year from subscription services.

Musk has said that he aims to take in a revenue of $3 billion for 2023.

'While it is becoming clear that Twitter Blue subscriptions will not cover the desired portion, the company is considering offering a higher-priced membership tier that allows users to browse the site ad-free.

Twitter is also planning to charge businesses $1,000 a month for gold verification badge, plus $50 a month for each affiliated account -- a move that many believe will drive more companies off the platform.