Elon Musk mulls putting Twitter behind a paywall as company reports it actually GAINED users

Elon Musk is reportedly considering putting Twitter behind a paywall in another attempt to monetize the site, as the company reports it has actually gained users since the Tesla CEO took over last week.

The 51-year-old billionaire has been discussing the idea of creating a paywall for all Twitter users with tech investor David Sacks, sources familiar with Musk's plans told Platformer on Monday.

The proposal comes as the company reported that it has actually gained more users since he became the CEO, tweeting over the weekend: 'Twitter user numbers have increased significantly around the world since the deal was announced.'

It remains unclear what a paywall for Twitter may look like, but one person familiar with the plans said an option would be to allow everyone to use the site for a set amount of time each month, and pay a subscription to keep browsing.

The amount a user spends to get past the paywall would then be in addition to the $8 Twitter users could spend each month for verified blue check marks as Musk seeks to monetize the site he bought for $44billion.

But the SpaceX founder is also struggling to hold on to the sites existing revenue streams after several advertisers fled the site amid fears that the platform won't be a 'safe place for brands.' 

Elon Musk is said to be discussing the possibility of adding a paywall for all Twitter users. He is pictured here leaving the Twitter headquarters in New York City

It is just one of the many ways Musk is seeking to monetize the social media company he bought for $44 billion

Over the weekend, Musk tweeted that 'Twitter user numbers have increased significantly around the world since the deal was announced'

In one apparent attempt to get advertisers like General Mills, Audi and Pfizer back on the site, Twitter executives distributed an internal FAQ to its sales team on Monday to refer to when talking to potential advertisers.

The FAQ, obtained by The Verge, stresses that more users have been joining the social media site since Musk took over.

It says that Twitter's monetizable daily users — a measure advertisers use to determine profitability of a site — has grown more than 20 percent while 'Twitter's largest market, the US, is growing even more quickly.'

According to the FAQ, Twitter has added more than 15million daily users who are able to see ads (mDAUs) 'crossing the quarter billion mark' at the end of the second-quarter, when it stopped reporting financial information as a public company.

At that time, Twitter reported that it had 237.8million mDAUs and a 16.6 percent yearly growth rate.

Twitter defines mDAUs as monetizable daily active users who are logged in, or who access the site on any given day. 

General Mills, which makes Cheerios, Pillsbury and Häagen-Dazs, announced last week it was pausing advertisements on the website

Oreo-maker Mondelez International has also reportedly paused Twitter ad spending

The FAQ also sought to assuage advertisers about content moderation and Musk's leadership.

It was shared by Alex Josephson, a 10-year company veteran who is now the vice president of Twitter Next, a team that has helped brands create campaigns. 

The memo notes, according to the Verge, that 'levels of hate speech remain within historical norms, representing 0.25 percent to 0.45 percent of tweets per day among hundreds of millions.'

It also stresses that Musk will be subject to the same rules and content moderation as any other Twitter user, and restates Musk's claims that Twitter won't change its content moderation policies until it forms and convenes a 'content moderation council of widely diverse viewpoints.'

And it notes that the planned revamp of Twitter Blue 'will not affect exiting verified accounts at this time' and that 'large brand advertisers who are already verified will now have a "official" label beneath their name upon Twitter Blue's relaunch this week.'

 Twitter rolled out its new Twitter Blue subscription over the weekend, only to later postpone its launch until after the midterm elections

Twitter rolled out the new subscription plan over the weekend, only to later postpone its launch until after the midterm elections.

As part of the revamp, the company —   largely via Musk's personal account —said it will be launching new features, like reduced ads, the ability to post longer videos and a feature that allows users to receive priority ranking in replies, mentions and searches.

But the proposal has been met with much skepticism amid Twitter employees and users alike.

The existing version of Twitter Blue only had a little more than 10,000 subscribers, according to Platformer, and the new version will be 37.5 percent more expensive, requiring verified account holders to pay $8 a month to keep their blue check mark.

Employees had reportedly tried to sell Musk and Sacks on the idea of just asking business accounts to pay for the extra features, since many use Twitter to reach larger audiences.

And, as some employees pointed out, the new feature that would cut ad loading time in the Twitter app by half would also cost the company revenue, with some estimates showing that Twitter will lose about $6 in ad revenue per user in the United States under the scheme. 

But, Platformer reports, those ideas were dismissed in favor of offering wide-scale verification — though it remains unclear how many people or businesses would sign up for the new experience.