Twitter is going through a lot of changes in a short period of time. One of those significant changes is the introduction of a new Twitter Blue subscription, which puts a price tag on Twitter’s coveted verification brand. The price tag for the US market has been revealed at $8 per month. But how much is it for Indian users? A direct conversion will give a price of around Rs 650. However, this will surely not be the final price. Musk confirmed that prices will be determined based on the purchasing power parity of each country.
In that case, what will Indians pay for Twitter Blue? Although final pricing has not been revealed, we can estimate the price range for the subscription-based service by adjusting $8 using Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) calculations.
Price adjusted by country according to purchasing power parity
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2022
What is Purchasing Power Parity?
The International Monetary Fund defines PPP as the rate at which one country’s currency would have to be converted into another country’s to buy the same amount of goods and services.
For a better understanding, we can also use the example of Spotify, a music streaming service available in many countries, including the US and India. In the United States, the app charges a fee of $9.99 (roughly Rs. 830) for one month of music streaming. The same platform charges Rs 119 (approx. $1.45) for premium subscription. That’s a direct price reduction of the amount of money that goes into the platform’s pocket, a difference of about 86 percent. However, it should be noted that there may be some differences in services, which may increase or decrease the difference in prices.
Apart from just PPP, companies like Spotify can lower prices further to attract new users and gain volume. To get a better idea, we can use some PPP calculators that give us a more accurate idea of what you can pay for Twitter Blue and the Indian blue brand.
According to a salary converter tool that uses open source MIT licensed code, the adjusted price is Rs 159.82. The data used in the code is taken from the World Bank. Given the constant flux in exchange rates and rising inflation, this number can easily rise. Finally, PPP calculations for conversions can be landed on a range Rs 150- Rs 200 per month of Twitter Blue subscription.
Readers are advised to take this number with a grain of salt, as there are many more factors that go into determining the final price.
How is PPP calculated?
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development explained that the calculation of PPP is done in three phases. In the first stage, that is at the product level, relative prices are calculated for individual goods and services. For example, a liter of Coca-Cola costs 2.3 euros in France and 2 dollars in the United States, then the PPA for Coca-Cola between France and the US is 2.3/2.00 or 1.15. This means that for every dollar spent on a liter of Coca-Cola in the US, 1.15 euros would have to be spent in France to obtain the same quantity and quality.
In the second stage, that is, at the product group level, the relative prices calculated for the products in the group are averaged to obtain the group’s unweighted PPPs. Coca-cola, for example, is included in the “Soft drinks and concentrates” product group.
And the third stage is in the aggregation levels, where the PPPs of the product groups that include the aggregation levels are weighted and averaged to obtain the weighted PPPs for the aggregation level to GDP (for example, the aggregated levels are Non-Alcoholic Beverages, Food. …).
In the third stage, the weights used to combine the PPPs are the product groups’ expenses, as established in the national accounts.