Elon Musk's X rolls out Ads revenue sharing for verified accounts in Nigeria

“I got paid by Twitter, now known as X. I [tweeted] my opinions...views, and people are blessed, however, it’s also nice to be paid for it,” Solomon Buchi, a Nigerian Twitter influencer posted on Tuesday.

Buchi is one of the many Nigerian creators that posted to confirm payments from Elon Musk's X as part of the social media company's ad revenue sharing model.

Last month, X started paying creators for a share of the ad revenue earned from ads served in the replies to their posts. Users who subscribe to Twitter Blue and have earned more than five million tweet impressions each month for the last three months are eligible to join.

As of August 4, X said that “the volume of people signing up for revenue sharing has exceeded our expectations”. “We previously said that payments would occur the week of July 31st. We need a bit more time to review everything for the next payout and hope to get all eligible accounts paid as soon as possible,” X said.

The revenue sharing model is active globally. According to the social media company, its payment processor currently supports over 100 countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa and other African countries. “This is part of our effort to help people earn a living directly on X,” says X, the company which was acquired by Elon Musk in a $44 billion deal last year. “An absolute game changer for our creators,” X CEO, Linda Yaccarino, adds.

Before the Nigeria payouts, the program commenced in the US last month. According to Elon Musk, the first round of creator payouts was about $5 million, and included a cumulative from February when he first made mention of the program.

A Nigerian creator Abazz who has about 68,000 followers said that he was paid ₦220,345 via the program. “I was paid [₦51,881] for my first X Ads Revenue Sharing,” another Nigerian creator FotoNugget posted.

“If it actually works and Nigerian creators are able to get paid, it would be indeed impactful to Nigerian creator economy because for a lot of people, creating content on twitter is a full time thing and it would be great to see them get paid for the impressions they generate just like any other platform,” says Douglas Kendyson, CEO of Selar.

How does the X Ads Revenue Sharing work?

The X revenue sharing model is open to any creator who meets the following criteria:

• The creator must be subscribed to Blue or Verified Organizations.
• The intended applicant must have at least 15 million organic impressions on its cumulative posts within the last three months.
• The user must have at least 500 followers

Once the user meets the aforementioned criteria, they need a Stripe account. According to X, the user must also adhere to its Ads Revenue Share Terms, which include, for example, Creator Monetisation Standards and the X Rules. If a user is found breaching any of the the rules, they will be excluded from the program.

A hack to get more X Blue subscribers?

“If you see blue tick beside my name you know why,” Stephanie Orkuma, a popular influencer in “Nigeria Design Twitter”, humorously posted. Although laced in humour, these words will definitely resonate with other creators.

X is likely going to see more creators paying about ₦3560 every month to enhance their eligibility for the program. As of April 2023, it was reported that there were around 640,000 X Blue subscribers globally.

Paying African creators, owing former African employees

While Elon Musk is helping African creators to earn a living via the Ads Revenue Sharing program, he has ignored the former employees of Twitter Africa who were laid off as part of a global cost-cutting measure that took place after he acquired the company last year.

“They literally ghosted us,” one former Twitter Africa employee told CNN. “Although Twitter has eventually settled former staff in other locations, Africa staff have still been left in the lurch despite us eventually agreeing to specific negotiated terms.”

In November, the employees wrote a letter to Ghana's Chief Labour Officer stating that; “It is clear that Twitter, Inc. under Mr Elon Musk is either deliberately or recklessly flouting the laws of Ghana, is operating in bad faith and in a manner that seeks to silence and intimidate former employees into accepting any terms unilaterally thrown at them”.

The Labour Office has said that it is investigating the claims. Meanwhile, X has declined requests for comments regarding the subject.

This is a developing story.