Twitter plans to sell usernames to boost revenue

The company considered selling some usernames through online auctions, people familiar with the plans said.

Twitter has considered selling usernames to generate new revenue as owner Elon Musk attempts to revive the company's operations, two people with knowledge of the matter have said. plan.

Twitter employees have been having conversations about selling certain usernames for the service since at least December, the people said. The engineers discussed setting up online auctions where people can bid on usernames, which are the words, numbers, or string of characters that follow the @ sign by which accounts are identified on the platform. Mr. Musk's username, for example, is @elonmusk.

It's unclear if the project will move forward and if the plan affects all names of users or just a subset, people said. But Mr Musk said last month he wanted to start eliminating inactive accounts on Twitter and free up 1.5 billion usernames. Only certain usernames, such as well-known people, brands and popular names, can have value.

The social media society is boiling since Mr. Musk bought for $44 billion in October. Given the high price of the deal, the billionaire is under pressure to make the purchase a success.

Mr. Musk has since cut Twitter's expenses, ordering layoffs, cutting other costs and stopping supplier payments. At the same time, he's been trying to find new avenues to make money as Twitter experiences a sharp drop in ad revenue. It offered a revamped subscription plan for users to pay for verification badges, and the company filed documents with the Treasury Department to process payments.

Mr. Musk said he plans to create "a multipurpose app," similar to China's WeChat, which more than a billion people use to find information, connect with friends, make payments and order food.

Unique usernames, also known as usernames, can be lucrative. They are often claimed by early adopters of social media platforms and some people and brands are willing to pay thousands of dollars for them. Black markets have sprung up where people can buy "original gangsters," or O.G., usernames that are sought after because they have a short word or number and may have been abandoned by their owners.

Twitter and Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comment.

Twitter rules prohibit purchase and the sale of handles. The trade has already attracted pirates. In 2020, a 17-year-old in Florida was arrested after he hacked into Twitter to get usernames to sell, compromising the accounts of Mr. Musk and celebrities.

Telegram, a popular messaging platform, said it would allow people to auction their handles in October.

Four days after acquiring the company in October, Mr. Musk tweeted that he would "definitely" seek to purge acco...