Buying followers is old news. Now, entire social media accounts are being bought and sold on grey-market platforms.
According to a Times of India report, there are online marketplaces where buyers can choose social media accounts based on follower count, audience profile, account age, monetisation potential and asking price. Sellers, in turn, are trying to cash in on the history, reach and credibility they have built over time.
One listing cited in the report reportedly asked for around Rs 6.7 lakh for an India-based Instagram account with just about 7,000 followers. The account was only around a year old and had fewer than 60 posts, showing how wildly prices can vary in this unregulated market.
The business itself is not entirely new. Social media accounts have reportedly been traded on grey markets for well over a decade. What has changed is the rise of the influencer economy, where followers, engagement and audience trust can directly translate into advertising revenue and brand deals.
That has effectively given established accounts a commercial value.
For a buyer, purchasing an existing account can appear attractive because it offers an instant audience instead of requiring months or years to build one from scratch. An older account with genuine engagement may also look more credible than a newly created profile with artificially inflated followers.
But there is a major catch.
Buying or selling accounts can violate platform rules. X, for example, explicitly prohibits buying, selling or transferring accounts for compensation.
YouTube operates differently in some cases. Channels linked to Brand Accounts can have ownership transferred through Google’s official system, but YouTube separately prohibits the sale or transfer of handles. Google also warns users against unsafe practices such as password sharing.
There are also practical risks for buyers. An account may have fake followers, poor engagement, hidden policy violations or a completely different audience from the one advertised. The original owner may also retain recovery information, creating security concerns after money has changed hands.
For sellers too, handing over login credentials can expose personal information if the account is linked to emails, phone numbers, payment systems or other services.
The growing trade nevertheless shows how much social media has changed. What began as a space for personal posts and online interaction has evolved into an economy where an account itself can be viewed as a digital asset.
Followers may be cheap to manufacture, but an account with history, real engagement and a loyal audience can carry real commercial value. That is exactly what these marketplaces are attempting to sell.
