Twitter May Start Selling User Names To Boost Revenue: Report

It is still unclear how much Twitter will charge for selling inactive user names.

Since Musk's takeover, Musk has been aiming to boost the company's revenue.

Source : Getty

Twitter will soon start selling user names via online auctions that have remained inactive in order to boost its revenues. As per a report by The New York Times, engineers at the company are planning to organise online auctions where people can bid for user names, or Twitter handles.

It is still unclear how much Twitter will charge for selling inactive user names.

"The company has discussed selling some user names through online auctions, people with knowledge of the plans said," according to the report.

In December, CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet that Twitter would soon start freeing up 1.5 billion usernames.

"Twitter will soon start freeing the name space of 1.5 billion accounts," posted Musk.

Twitter will soon start freeing the name space of 1.5 billion accounts

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022

He said that these are "obvious account deletions with no tweets and no log in for years".

After acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, Musk posted that he was interested in freeing up accounts with desired usernames.

Since Musk's takeover, the billionaire has been aiming to boost the company's revenue, including charging money for its $8 Blue subscription service with verification.

Several advertisers have left the micro-blogging platform, as the company reduces internal revenue projections.

Musk also said that the micro-blogging platform is working on a process to inform the users whether their tweets have been suppressed under a process known as "shadow banning" and they can appeal against the ban.

Earlier this month, Musk set a world record for the 'largest loss of personal fortune in history'. As per Guinness World Records, Musk lost around $180 billion since November 21.

Elon Musk has lost $182 billion of personal wealth since 2021, the highest amount of anyone in history…https://t.co/PcQY7FGB1W

— Guinness World Records (@GWR) January 6, 2023

Stating that wealth is an approximate figure, the body noted that Musk's total losses exceeded the previous record of $58.6 billion, set by Japanese tech investor Masayoshi Son in 2000.

(With inputs from IANS)