Elon Musk said on Tuesday Twitter Inc might charge a "slight" fee for commercial and government users, part of the billionaire entrepreneur's push to grow revenue which has lagged behind larger rivals like Meta Platforms Inc's Facebook.

"Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users," Musk said in a tweet. "Some revenue is better than none!" he added in another tweet.

Twitter declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Last week, Reuters reported that Musk told banks he would develop new ways to monetise tweets and crack down on executive pay to slash costs at the social media platform company.

Musk also told the banks he planned to develop features to grow business revenue, including new ways to make money out of tweets that contain important information or go viral, sources told Reuters.

At the annual Met Gala in New York on Monday, Musk said the reach of Twitter was currently only "niche," and he would want a much bigger percentage of the country to be on it.

Musk, also the chief executive officer of top electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc, has been suggesting a raft of changes to Twitter since last month.

In tweets which were subsequently deleted, Musk suggested changes to Twitter Blue premium subscription service, including slashing its price, banning advertising and giving an option to pay in the cryptocurrency dogecoin.

After inking the deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion last week, Musk said he wanted to enhance the platform with new features, make the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeat spam bots, and authenticate all humans.

Opinion

Editorial

Smog hazard
Updated 05 Nov, 2024

Smog hazard

The catastrophe unfolding in Lahore is a product of authorities’ repeated failure to recognise environmental impact of rapid urbanisation.
Monetary policy
05 Nov, 2024

Monetary policy

IN an aggressive move, the State Bank on Monday reduced its key policy rate by a hefty 250bps to 15pc. This is the...
Cultural power
05 Nov, 2024

Cultural power

AS vital modes of communication, art and culture have the power to overcome social and international barriers....
Disregarding CCI
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Disregarding CCI

The failure to regularly convene CCI meetings means that the process of democratic decision-making is falling apart.
Defeating TB
04 Nov, 2024

Defeating TB

CONSIDERING the fact that Pakistan has the fifth highest burden of tuberculosis in the world as per the World Health...
Ceasefire charade
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Ceasefire charade

The US talks of peace, while simultaneously arming and funding their Israeli allies, are doomed to fail, and are little more than a charade.