Musk says Twitter may charge slight fee for commercial, government users

Elon Musk said on Tuesday Twitter Inc will always be free for casual users but may charge a slight fee for commercial and government users, as the billionaire entrepreneur tries to boost the social media platform's reach from "niche" to most Americans.

"Twitter will always be free for casual users, but maybe a slight cost for commercial/government users," Musk said in a tweet.

Twitter declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Tesla chief Musk has been suggesting a raft of changes to Twitter since last month. After adding the company to his cart recently, 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.

Last month, even before reaching a deal with Twitter, Musk had suggested few changes to the Twitter Blue premium subscription service, including slashing its price.

Earlier this week at the annual Met Gala in New York on Monday, Musk also said he would make Twitter transparent about how tweets are promoted or demoted and wanted its software to be publicly available for critique.

Musk plans to take firm public after buyout

Elon Musk, who has agreed to take Twitter Inc. private in a $44-billion deal, has told potential investors he could return the social-media company to public ownership after just a few years.

Musk said he plans to stage an initial public offering of Twitter in as little as three years of buying it, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal is expected to close later this year, subject to conditions including the approval of Twitter shareholders and regulators, the company has said.

Musk, the Tesla Inc. chief, has been speaking to investors such as private-equity firms, which could help lower the $21 billion he plans to kick in to help pay for the deal. The rest of the money is coming from loans. (Agencies).