Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, is reportedly selling old and inactive user accounts for a price starting at $50,000. According to Forbes, a team within the company called the @Handle Team has been working on a handle marketplace to sell unused account names. This move comes after Musk announced his plans to implement such a program in the near future.
Forbes has obtained emails indicating that the @Handle Team is actively selling these disused user handles. X has already reached out to potential buyers, requesting a fixed fee of $50,000 to initiate the account purchase. These emails were sent by active X employees, who mentioned recent updates to the @Handle guidelines, procedures, and fees.
This plan aligns with Musk’s previous statements about selling old usernames. He mentioned that a “vast number” of handles had been taken by “bots and trolls” shortly after acquiring Twitter. Reports in January suggested that he planned to free up around 1.5 billion usernames. In May, X had already started removing inactive accounts from its platform.
However, Forbes reported that X’s username registration policy still stated that inactive usernames could not be released at the moment. The “inactive account policy” advised users to log in every 30 days to avoid being considered inactive, but it also mentioned that inactive usernames were not being released at the time.
Meanwhile, Musk expressed his desire to turn X into an “everything app.” He announced plans to expand the rebranded platform to offer comprehensive communication capabilities and the ability to manage one’s entire financial world. In a recent internal meeting, Musk even hinted at the possibility of adding a dating feature to the micro-blogging site.
Musk believes that a person’s X posts can be a significant indicator of whether they would be a desirable hire or a potential romantic partner. He stated that finding someone on the platform and assessing compatibility based on their posts is possible since he and his friends have found people through Twitter.
As of now, we are awaiting further response on this matter.
