UX is finally following through with its long rumored plans to sell old usernames, and some of the most sought-after usernames can fetch millions of dollars. The company shared a lot of information about it and opened a waiting program in its “marketplace” that will enable paying subscribers to request and buy “idle” handles.
According to the company, X will make two types of ‘non-functional’ handles available: “Most important” which can include Premium + handles and “are-geranumeric” and generium. “The company says @Gabrieljones may be examples of such handles. Notably, this process requires a full subscription to X Premium, as the company says it will restore account handles.
The process of getting the “Rare” handle is pretty straightforward. UX says that it will offer some rare handles through “community drops” and that it will be given for free “based on Merit” and that many users will be able to apply. UX will take the user’s marriage and “past contributions” to the platform in relation to when deciding who gets these causes. The company will also make certain handles available for sale through an invitation-only process. These values will be ‘adjusted’ and “determined by many factors including word popularity, letter length, and cultural significance.” These usernames can include common middle names like @One, @fly or @compute, according to examples provided by X.
“Some handles are included with premium + or premium business registration,” x wrote in the FAQ. “Others – especially common handles – may be reported anywhere from $2,500 to seven arms, depending on demand and uniqueness.” People who buy a regular handle from scratch will need to have a premium+ or premium subscription to start the process, but they won’t need to save one to keep the handle.
In a later “Transfer Agreement,” X describes its buyout plan as a “progressive” agreement that it hopes will be accepted by other telecommunications companies in the future. “We are establishing a new standard for social media securities – a Framework that we hope the wider industry will adopt, similar to how social notes influence online transparency,” the company wrote.
Andrew Allemann, publisher of Domain Name, a book that tracks the domain name industry, says there are some similarities between the X handle marketing program and the area of expired domains. “For a long time, people have been buying and selling holes in X, and X didn’t get a cut of that,” he told Engedget. “So in some ways, I think this is going to get some of the better handles for more use on the platform.”
But he said he would have concerns with some of X’s wording of X’s policies, which allows him to “return ‘account management where he is not working,” I will seek certain rights without money if he did not enter into the contract that was stated in the contract that cannot be removed. I definitely want a long period of inactivity before it is removed. “
UX also has a history of desirable handles from users that they were there using them actively. The company took the @x handle from a San Francisco photographer in 2023 without compensating him, even though he was offered “a tour of X’s headquarters. That same year, it also took the @music handle from a long-time user with more than half of his followers. The year before, the company took down the @AMECA handle from a critic of Donald Trump. The handle now we are being used by Musk’s Super PAC.
X’s “Merit”-based handling system raises further questions about who the user can decide to reward and punish. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Allemann says all social media users must remember that they do not own the content they publish on the company’s platforms. “When you make your website, you control it, and people can always come to it. In social media, you have one private owner, and it’s very good in their rights to remove you, or change the algorithm to affect you.”
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