How much are you willing to pay for that WholesomChungus420 handle on X? Assuming it’s available, having gone dormant because whichever Redditor had it previously died of basic cardio, you’ll need to pay twice. And then keep paying, until you, too, expire in some unlikely incident involving a terrified badger and a VW Microbus.
X, formerly Twitter (yes, we know you know by now), is launching its X Handle Marketplace that will let subscribers purchase usernames that were snagged by folks who never used them, or simply stopped posting. There’s a catch, though. To browse the options and give Elon’s company money for something that catches your eye, you’ll have to be a Premium subscriber.
Beating you with an X handle
Not just any Premium subscriber, though. Oh, no. Folks looking for that elusive online handle that will accurately reflect their online personality must be either Premium Business or Premium Plus subscribers. The former will set you back R3,200 a month, the latter around R740.
After that, you’ll be allowed through the door, where all manner of handles are up for grabs. These include “full names, multi-word phrases, or alphanumeric combinations”, many of which will be free to Premium subscribers. But not all of them. So-called ‘rare’ Pepes handles “may be priced anywhere from $2,500 to over seven figures, depending on demand and uniqueness.” R45,000 (or much, much more) for an X username might seem like a bunch to most, but when you’re paying at least seven hundred bucks a month to post online? It could be written off as a business expense, perhaps.
Now for the ‘keep paying’ part. The new X handle isn’t the end of the story, whether you snagged a free one from the Marketplace or paid for it. The new username steps in, and your old one is locked until further notice. Folks who downgrade their accounts (i.e., stop subscribing) will revert to their old username. Whether this also applies to handles that users have paid cash for is uncertain. Perhaps it pops back in once your subscription payment clears again. Those freebies, though? We suspect they go back up for grabs straight away.
