Under the leadership of Elon Musk, Twitter is constantly looking for new ways to make money. One of them, Twitter is reportedly considering selling usernames.
This report comes from the New York Times which says engineers at Twitter are considering holding an online auction where users can bid on usernames, as quoted by TechCrunch, Friday (13/1/2023).
The potential for this new revenue stream has been under discussion since December 2022. It is unknown whether this plan will become a reality soon, and if so, it is not yet known whether this plan will affect all usernames or just a few.
Last month, Elon Musk tweeted that Twitter would release 1.5 billion usernames whose accounts had been deleted and had not been used in years. After buying Twitter in October 2022, Musk has also indicated that he is interested in freeing up accounts with attractive usernames.
Twitter currently has a policy against 'username squatting'. This is a practice where someone creates an account but doesn't fill in any profile so that the username can be sold. Despite the ban, many people have been able to buy Twitter usernames through the black market over the years.
If this feature is launched, Twitter will not be the first social media to provide the option to buy usernames. Telegram recently announced that it will be holding a username auction for personal accounts and channels through the TON blockchain-based marketplace.
Since taking over Twitter for USD 44 billion, Elon Musk has continued to rack his brains to increase Twitter's revenue amid sluggish revenue coming from the advertising business. Twitter has reportedly left several major advertisers and has even lowered its revenue projections.
The company with the bird logo has made several changes to boost revenue. For example, relaunching Twitter Blue at a higher price and plans to allow political ads in the next few weeks.