Twitter will start paying content creators for the advertisements displayed in their replies, with an initial payment pool of US$5 million, Elon Musk said in a tweet on Friday (Jun 9).

“Note, the creator must be verified and only ads served to verified users count,” Musk, the billionaire who bought Twitter last October, added in the tweet.

Since Tesla CEO Musk acquired Twitter, the platform has struggled to retain advertisers, who have been wary about the placement of their ads after the company laid off thousands of employees.

The move comes as Twitter’s newly named CEO, Linda Yaccarino, an advertising veteran from NBCUniversal, is about to take the helm at the social media platform.

In March, Musk said tha tthe messaging service makes about 5 or 6 cents per hour of attention from users and could raise that to 15 cents or more with advertisements that are more relevant and timely. REUTERS