Looks like Tesla is wasting money on Twitter/X – Photo: Insider
The purchase of Twitter (now X) by Elon Musk was a bit of a flop and is now more questionable.
Tesla, another company of the billionaire, has several accounts on the social network. Many accounts remain inactive on a regular basis. Some may even be considered “ghost accounts” when there is almost no activity.
However, to maintain the authenticity of the company account, Tesla is required to pay a maintenance fee, whether there is activity or not.
After taking over Twitter/X, Elon Musk has launched the Verified Organizations policy, which roughly means that the account is verified as the owner. These accounts can be identified by the blue checkmark next to the name.
For individual customers, the main account maintenance fee is 8 USD/month. For businesses, this fee increases to $1,000/month. Sub-accounts will charge an additional 50 USD/month to become an “Affiliate Account”.
Electrek said Tesla has so many social media accounts that he pays $1,650 a month, or $20,000 a year, to a shared company.
This is not a huge amount for a company like Tesla or the second richest person in the world like Elon Musk. But it’s a waste of money to have accounts like @Tesla_Optimus (for the humanoid robot) who has only posted once since it was created in January 2023.
The @Tesla_Optimus account has only one post since it was created – screenshot
In addition, according to Carscoops, it is likely that Tesla is also paying to maintain the official accounts of some leaders, such as Franz von Holzhausen (head of design), Drew Baglino (head of the powertrain division) or Tom Zhu (Vice President, China, most recently became manager of all assembly operations in the US as well as vehicle distribution in the North American and European markets).
It is noteworthy that Tom Zhu rarely uses the social network Twitter/X.
In addition to wasting money, “ghost accounts” are one of the tools Elon Musk used to pressure Twitter’s prices in the acquisition.
This makes Elon Musk a paradoxical figure: criticizing “ghost accounts” does no good, but he also allows his company to set up a dormant account.
(tagstotranslate)Tesla
