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- Elon Musk has proposed a paywall for X, but some experts are skeptical.
- The billionaire said the move aimed to tackle the platform's bot problem.
- Experts expressed doubts over Musk's motive and his ability to get users to pay up.
Elon Musk has proposed a paywall for X, formerly Twitter, and experts are skeptical about the suggested business model.
During a conversation with Israel's prime minister on Monday, Musk said: "The single most important reason that we are moving to having a small monthly payment for the use of the X system, is it is the only way I could think of to combat vast armies of bots."
It is unclear what form the proposed payments would take or how much they would be. Musk said the company was planning to come up with a "lower-tier pricing" of just a "small amount of money."
Some experts have expressed doubt over Musk's motives.
"I doubt that he is introducing charges to combat bots, because he's shown no interest in effective moderation up to now," Charlie Beckett, a professor at the London School of Economics, told Insider.
"It doesn't make much financial sense because any serious charge that could raise significant revenue would end up driving people onto alternative networks," he added.
Musk has long proclaimed to be concerned about bots on the platform. He even cited the number of fake accounts as one of the main reasons for trying to pull out of the deal to buy X, then Twitter, last year.
Since taking over the platform, the billionaire has been preoccupied with trying to find new ways to monetize the social-media network. Much of that strategy has been aimed at getting users to pay through a subscription service, Twitter Blue.
The Tesla CEO has repeatedly pushed for account verification as the main solution to bots on the platform. However, Twitter Blue, his main attempt to get verified, paying users onto the social-media network is estimated to have enticed sign-ups from less than 1% of X's user base.
"Getting everyone to pay even a small fee for X will be extremely difficult," Matt Navarra, a social-media expert, told Insider. "He's going need to to convince a lot more users to pay up."
"Whilst there is some logic to Elon's plans here, the odds of success are heavily stacked against him," Navarra added.
The idea of a subscription service for all has been an unpopular idea with many users. Several have taken to the platform to say they wouldn't be willing to pay for the service and planned to move to alternative platforms.
Navarra said adding a paywall to the entire site would likely impact growth, pointing to the issue of affordability for users in developing countries.
"Advertisers may have concerns about the impact on ad reach and engagement," he added. "I think it's a risky strategy that may only speed up the deterioration of a platform in chaos."