Days after Elon Musk's X announced it would sue an advertising industry group over an alleged boycott of its service, the company is removing ads entirely from its top subscription tier. On Wednesday evening, X-account announced that its Premium+ subscription would be “completely” ad-free, raising questions about how the change will affect creators' earnings as part of X's ad revenue-sharing program.
Last year, the company, formerly known as Twitter, opened up its advertising revenue-sharing program to creators around the world, allowing them to monetize their accounts through ads that appear in replies to their posts. This has encouraged creators to post memes, jokes, hot takes, controversial opinions and other conversation-generating material. X said it would put guardrails around what could be monetized this way, preventing creators from making money on posts featuring sexual content, violence, criminal activity, gambling, drugs, alcohol and “get rich quick” schemes.
Despite these limitations, the program's launch had an impact on X's content: these viral posts began to appear more prominently in the algorithmic “For You” feed, and some creators initially reported making five- to six-figure amounts. Other creators were more cautious about X, arguing that the platform was still a long way from being a major source of revenue compared to the opportunities available on other social media apps.
X says creators can only share revenue from organic impressions from “verified” users of ads that appear in replies to posts on X, which requires a Premium or Premium+ subscription.
But because X's Premium+ is relatively ad-free to begin with, this latest change may not have as big an impact as creators fear. Prior to the change, Premium+ subscribers did not see ads in X's For You timeline, Following timeline, post replies, or profile, but X warned that users “may encounter sponsored content outside of X's standard ad inventory.”
Meanwhile, X’s premium users (the middle tier) were already seeing a 50% reduction in ads in their “Recommended” and “Following” timelines.
“Your time is valuable,” X owner Elon Musk emphasized in a post about the changes to the Premium+ subscription.
The company has been at odds with advertisers under Musk's leadership. Last year, during an onstage interview at the DealBook conference, Musk told advertisers who fled X over its controversial posts to “fuck you.” When advertisers followed Musk's advice and chose not to advertise on the platform, he sued them, arguing that the ad boycott was illegal. Oddly enough, one of the groups X is currently suing, GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media), is the same group X touted rejoining in July, posting that it was committed to safety efforts and was “proud to be part of the GARM community.” (On Thursday, the Global Alliance of Advertisers announced it was suspending GARM as a result of the lawsuit.)
In the near future, it's questionable whether X will be profitable, as it relies on advertising revenue. But Musk hopes that X will eventually make money in other ways, such as functioning as a payments app. Judging by code references found in the web app, this change is coming. Unlike Twitter, Musk's X also faces stiff competition from other services, including Meta's Threads, the open-source Mastodon, and startups like Bluesky, Spoutible, and Spill.