Twitter said on Wednesday it was offering an annual plan for its subscription service called Twitter Blue, which includes its sought-after "verified" badge, at a discount to its monthly price. Users can subscribe to the service for an annual price of $84, instead of a monthly subscription price of $8 on the web and $11 on Apple devices. The discount would be available in countries including United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, Twitter said. Twitter Says It Blocked Third-Party Apps Broke Since billionaire Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter for $44 billion last year, he has brought changes to the company including new subscription plans for Twitter Blue. The blue check mark was previously reserved for verified accounts of politicians, famous personalities, journalists and other public figures. But a subscription option, open to anyone prepared to pay, was rolled out last year to help Twitter grow revenue as Musk fights to retain advertisers. Earlier in December, Musk stated that Twitter's Basic blue tick will have half the number of advertisements and the social media platform will offer a higher tier with no advertisements by next year. Why Elon Musk Is Facing a US Trial Over His Tweets About Tesla in 2018 Musk had also stated that Twitter would restrict voting on policy-related polls to paying Twitter Blue subscribers, on the same day that users voted decisively in a poll for him to step down as chief executive of the social media platform. Twitter's CEO had claimed he would abide by the results of the poll, but did not give details on when he would step down if the results said he should. He has not yet named a successor for the role. Since taking over in October, Musk swiftly fired top management and thousands of employees, seesawed on how much to charge for the social media firm's subscription service Twitter Blue, and reinstated accounts banned under the previous management, including that of former US President Donald Trump. © Thomson Reuters 2023 Is 2023 the year when you should finally buy a foldable phone? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts. Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.