In the event you answered ‘enhance the worth by 67%, with out enhancing the providing in any manner’, you might be certified for Twitter’s product dev group.

This week, Twitter has begun informing Twitter Blue subscribers that they’ll quickly should pay much more for his or her month-to-month subscription.

As you possibly can see on this notification, the month-to-month cost for Twitter Blue entry is leaping from $2.99 to $4.99 within the US, with all different areas additionally seeing the identical relative enhance.

Present Blue subscribers shall be spared the extra expenses for a few months, however from October, everybody shall be copping a 67% soar in prices – with no extra options, no change in course of. Nothing.

Which, as famous, appears notably odd on condition that Twitter Blue isn’t doing so nicely as it’s.

As a part of Twitter’s newest efficiency replace, posted final week, the corporate reported that its income from ‘subscriptions and different’ sources totaled $100 million in Q2 2022 – which is definitely a lower of 36% for this factor, year-over-year.

That may counsel that Twitter Blue is not actually gaining any traction in any respect, whereas Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal additionally famous again in Could that the corporate ‘has not hit intermediate milestones that allow confidence’ with its new income and development initiatives, together with Blue.

Twitter hasn’t shared any official numbers, however unbiased perception, primarily based on funds made through app shops, has additionally indicated that Twitter actually isn’t taking in a lot income from subscription funds.

So why up the worth?

It looks like a destructive transfer, which can lead to extra customers who’ve signed as much as strive it out dumping the extra value. And amid a broader financial downturn, which has seen the price of residing rise total, will many individuals actually be keen to pay $5 per thirty days for NFT profile photos and a few customized icons?

I’m guessing not. However Twitter must generate profits in some way, and as numerous commentators have famous, the corporate can be about to see a major soar in authorized prices due its coming courtroom battle with Elon Musk.

Possibly that’s why it’s upping the worth, nevertheless it does look like Twitter ought to not less than be seeking to sweeten the deal in some way, if it’s going to ask for extra money.

I imply, Snapchat+, which is analogous to Twitter Blue, is already reportedly outpacing Blue subscriptions, solely a month after launch. Snapchat has additionally added in new options, like entry to a desktop model of the app, solely to S+ customers.

Evidently there are methods to make subscription choices like this work – although I’m unsure that boosting the worth, seemingly at random, is the expansion hack Twitter may suppose.