Paid verification for public figures on Twitter: charge or not, and the revenue model

Twitter marks the verified accounts of well-known people with a blue check mark. Should Twitter start charging these accounts for verification with the check mark? If it should, what monetization model should it adopt? ### Clarifying Questions - What goal should drive the decision: new revenue, more accounts verified, fewer impersonators, or a lighter manual review workload? - Which accounts are in scope: celebrities and athletes, journalists, politicians, or also brands and public agencies? - Should the check mark keep meaning "notable and confirmed to be who they claim", or may it come to mean only "identity confirmed"? - Would accounts that already have the check mark keep it without paying? ### Part 1 — Decide whether to charge Make the call and back it up. Weigh what the check mark is worth to the people reading posts, to the verified accounts and to Twitter itself, and what changes once it carries a price. ```hint Follow the value Ask who gains the most from the check mark: the reader, the verified account or Twitter. Then ask how a price would change which accounts hold it and what readers take it to mean. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - The value of verification to each party, and a rough size of the revenue that charging could bring. - Effects on trust, on impersonation, and on whether well-known people keep posting. - A clear answer (yes, no, or yes under conditions) with its reasoning. ### Part 2 — Design the monetization model Suppose Twitter decides to charge, whether on your recommendation or despite it. Propose the model: who pays, what exactly the payment buys, how it is priced, and what keeps the check mark meaningful. ```hint Not every payer is alike Compare a few ways of charging, and consider whether an individual and an organization should pay for the same thing in the same way. ``` #### What This Part Should Cover - At least two models compared, such as a one-time fee, a recurring subscription, a bundle of tools, or an organization-paid tier. - Pricing logic, and which accounts, if any, stay free. - Safeguards against impersonation and the metrics that show whether the model works. ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A stance taken early and kept consistent across both parts. - A rough revenue sizing set against Twitter's main source of revenue. - Explicit weighing of revenue against trust. - Success metrics with guardrails on impersonation and on activity from well-known accounts. ### Follow-up Questions - Leadership insists that anyone who pays gets the same check mark. How would you limit impersonation? - Several famous accounts announce they will not pay and threaten to leave. How do you respond? - Six months after launch, how would you tell whether the change helped or hurt the platform overall?