How much would you be willing to pay to have perfect control of X, ex-Twitter? For several years now, a black market, mainly on specialized forums, has made it possible to buy and resell nicknames, often pirated and stolen from their original owner, for amounts of up to several thousand euros.
A very lucrative vein that has not gone unnoticed by platforms trying to create their own market. This is, for example, the case of X. As reported by Engadget, the platform has just announced the launch of its official marketplace platform to request or buy usernames that were previously inaccessible.
Several million for a nickname
A long-standing project for Elon Musk. In fact, on May 8, 2023, the South African billionaire had announced that old inactive accounts on the platform would soon be deleted so they could be reassigned. “We are eliminating accounts that have been inactive for several years, so they will probably see the number of subscribers decrease,” he said on his social network. It’s already done.
Only paid Premium+ and Premium Business subscribers can access the platform to purchase inactive nicknames. You can now register on the waiting list to access.
According to the company, X will offer two types of “inactive” nicknames. “Priority” identifiers, which can include full names, multi-word phrases, or alphanumeric combinations, such as @GabrielJones or @ParadoxAI, are free. Once the request is approved, the nickname is transferred to the new user, at no additional cost. If the latter terminates your subscription, your old identifier will automatically be returned to you after a period of 30 days.
“Rare” pseudonyms, made up of short, generic names or names with strong cultural value, such as @Pizza, @fly or @One, can sell for high prices. Prices range from $2,500 to several million, depending on rarity and demand. If the Premium subscription ends, the user will be able to keep their nickname this time.
A well-oiled strategy
But it’s not enough to pay the price to get these nicknames… You still have to be selected. To obtain these “rare” nicknames, public “drops” will be organized. Paying subscribers will be able to apply based on their “merit” and their activity on the social network. The most popular @ will be proposed by invitation. Criteria that, therefore, remain very vague. Prices will be “fixed” and determined by several factors, including word popularity, character length, and cultural meaning.
For X, the strategy is clear. The company hopes to attract new users to paid plans and, above all, generate new unexpected financial income. “For a long time, people have been buying and selling domain names on
It must be said that the platform has gone through difficult times. In 2024, the fund manager Fidelity assured that X had lost 71.5% of its value and estimated the value of the platform at about $12.5 billion. At that time, the chaotic management of the social network by the billionaire and the relaxation of moderation policies scared away many advertisers, such as Coca-Cola or Apple, the main source of income before the takeover.
For a time, X managed to recover, boosted by the friendship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. In March, the company was valued at $44 billion, the amount Elon Musk paid to buy the social network in 2022. But since then, the two men have fallen out… and the period has become complicated again.
The company continues to lose money and, therefore, must increase its sources of income in the face of poor quality advertising. Among them, the Premium offers, which have recently experienced a significant price increase. The sale of nicknames seems, therefore, an additional line of income in the midst of a journey through the desert.
Source: BFM TV
