Twitter is reportedly planning to sell 1.5 billion usernames through an auction in order to raise revenue. According to the details, the auction would let users bid on usernames or handles, which is part of the company’s plans to generate revenue for the micro-blogging site after Elon Musk claimed that the company is losing almost $4 billion a day after advertisers pulled their business following the Tesla CEO’s takeover.
Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter for $44 billion last year, said that Twitter would begin freeing up 1.5 billion usernames, as inactive users are removed and deleted from the social media platform. “There are obvious account deletions with no tweets or no log in for years.” he said in tweet.
These are obvious account deletions with no tweets & no log in for years
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
It is pertinent to mention that Twitter’s username squatting policy doesn’t allow for usernames to be bought or sold but users had previously found a way around the policy by trading usernames on the black market.
According to The New York Times, the company may start auctioning off its unused usernames that have some kind of value, however, the company is yet to confirm whether it actually plans to go through with the idea.
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