News

Twitter Verification Costs More For Middle Eastern Firms

Businesses and organizations in several MENA countries will be charged more for verification than their counterparts in the USA.

Published

3 years ago

April 8, 2023

Nour Nasir

twitter verification costs more for middle eastern firms

Twitter’s blue badge system, Twitter Verification, is the company’s way of signifying whether a public interest account is authentic. Last year, after Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the social media platform, the blue tick was removed from accounts and replaced with subscription-based badges.

In December, Twitter introduced three new verification badges in different colors:

A gold tick for business organizations.
A gray tick for government-affiliated accounts.
A blue tick for individuals.

However, as the new verification system rolls out, Twitter users in Saudi Arabia have noticed that prices are an estimated 6.7% more than for US businesses.

The standard price for a business or organization is $1,000 for a monthly subscription and an additional $50 per month for each affiliate. On the other hand, Saudi Arabian organizations will have to stump up $1,066.67 and $53.55, respectively.

Also Read: Web Summit Expands With New Middle East Event In Qatar

UAE organizations will also have to pay more for verification, with monthly subscription costs climbing to $1,007.49. Qatar accounts will also pay more at $1,016.48, while those in Egypt will be charged $1,003.35. Interestingly, all other MENA countries will pay the standard $1,000 per month subscription and $50 monthly affiliate fee.

News

At I/O 2026, Sundar Pichai Concedes AI Must Deliver Real Value

Gemini 3.5, a personal agent called Spark, agentic shopping, and Android XR eyewear are all aimed at making AI feel useful, not just impressive.

Published

6 days ago

May 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

at io 2026 sundar pichai concedes ai must deliver real value

Google

Google’s annual I/O developer conference (I/O 2026) has recently become a status update on the same question: can the company turn its AI spending into products people use every day? This year, chief executive Sundar Pichai described Google as being in a phase of hyper progress, while conceding this is the part of the cycle where people want to see real value in the products they use on a day-to-day basis.

The strategy on display was to push agents — AI systems that act on a user’s behalf — into nearly every Google product at once. Search now has an “intelligent search box” that returns generated explainer videos alongside links. Gmail, Docs, YouTube and Maps are gaining their own agent layers, including a Docs Live feature that turns spoken instructions into drafted text with citations.

Two new models, Gemini 3.5 and a cheaper Gemini 3.5 Flash, arrived the same day. Google says 900 million people now use Gemini, and that more than 50 billion images have been generated with it. The pricing tier names are likely to confuse buyers: a new AI Ultra plan launches at $100 a month, while the older Gemini AI Ultra drops from $250 to $200.

The flashier announcements were Gemini Omni, a video generator pitched as a more realistic answer to OpenAI’s discontinued Sora 2, and Gemini Spark, a personal agent that handles recurring tasks across a user’s Google account. A new universal shopping cart lets agents complete purchases across multiple retailers from inside Google itself, placing the company between the merchant and the buyer, and also owning the checkout.

Also Read: DJI Teases Dual-Camera Osmo Pocket 4P For 2026 Launch

Google also confirmed its Android XR eyewear, built with Samsung and frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Audio-only glasses ship this autumn; a display-equipped version, which would superimpose live translations into the wearer’s field of view, is still in development. Both sets translate, however only the display version shows you the result.

What Pichai did not resolve is the bargain underneath all this. An agent is only useful to the degree it knows your calendar, your inbox, your shopping history and your physical surroundings. Google has now confirmed that, in time, the same context may carry advertising.