Whats Your @ Worth?: Twitter May Sell Usernames to Boost Revenue

Elon Musk’s Twitter is reportedly thinking about a new revenue stream that would involve selling user names to the highest bidder.

The New York Times reports that according to two sources with knowledge of the situation, engineers at the company have been discussing selling some usernames on the platform since at least December. The suggested strategy would entail holding online auctions where participants could place bids for usernames, which are the phrases, numbers, or strings of characters that come after the @ sign and are used to identify accounts on the platform. Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, has the user name @elonmusk, for instance.

However, the sources state that it is unclear whether the project will proceed or only some user names will be affected. Musk announced last month that he planned to delete inactive Twitter accounts to free up 1.5 billion user names. Some usernames, such as those of well-known figures, companies, and names may be valuable.

Since Musk acquired Twitter in October for $44 billion, he has reduced Twitter’s spending by ordering layoffs, eliminating other expenses, and pausing vendor payments. In addition, as Twitter’s ad revenue sharply declines, he has attempted to find new sources of income. Users now pay for verification badges thanks to his revised subscription plan, and the business has applied to process payments with the Treasury Department.

Musk has stated that he has visions of building “an everything app,” Similar to China’s WeChat, where users would interact, purchase items, communicate for work, order food, and more. Usernames that stand out, also referred to as handles, can be extremely valuable. Early adopters of social media platforms frequently claim them, and some individuals and businesses are willing to pay thousands of dollars for them. People can now purchase “original gangster,” or O.G., usernames on black markets, with usernames that contain a short word or number becoming extremely popular.

Musk said in a tweet that he would “definitely” look to delete accounts that have been inactive for a year, many of which have valuable usernames, four days after buying the company in October. Twitter would release the names of accounts that were “obvious account deletions with no tweets & no log in for years,” he said in December. Some people were worried that the company would delete the accounts of people who had passed away whose Twitter pages were used to remember them as a result of his plan.

Twitter is also still firing staff members. From the 7,500 employees the company had when he took over, Musk has cut the workforce by roughly 75 percent. Numerous employees were affected by new layoffs last week, including engineers working in advertising and personnel handling trust and safety, according to three people with knowledge of the changes.

This week, Musk, who also serves as the CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, emailed Twitter employees to let them know he was available for meetings once “most of my Tesla work” was finished. A copy of the note, seen by the New York Times, said that Musk reminded them that all product design and engineering changes must be approved by him, “no matter how small.”

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan