Facebook and fellow stablemate Instagram on Sunday unveiled a paid subscription service, which relies on ads business model which has long dominated the Internet falters.
the move Comes in spite of the initial pledge that social network He was supposed to remain “always” free.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook-parent meta announced All Sunday of Meta Verified, a service starting at $11.99 per month for one account, which follows the same move by Elon Musk on Twitter.
“this new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services,” Zuckerberg wrote in a permit posted on Facebook and Instagram.
Meta Verified will be released out in Australia and New Zealand this week before coming to market in United States and others countries.
Subscribers will receive a badge indicating that their account has been verified with a government additional identifier protection against Direct impersonation access to the client support And more vision, according to the company.
the social media The giant said that the service will be targeted primarily content creators They are looking to expand their presence on platforms and can see the modifications after a test phase.
There won’t be any changes to accounts on Facebook and Instagram already Verification, the company said, adding that only users who We are over the age of 18 will be allowed subscribe. The service is not yet available for companies.
It wasn’t right away clear how Zuckerberg’s plans price Meta Verified in countries Where users cannot pay $12 per month, or in cash- economies based on fewer ways to get money to meta.
Musk’s initial attempts to launch a similar service in competitors social media network Twitter last year Backfire with embarrassing iceberg of Fake accounts scare and discredit advertisers on websites future.
He was forced to put the effort on hold for a brief period before it was relaunched muted Recepion in December.
‘free’?
Facebook helped establish the dominant model of Great pads on Today’s internet, which sees users taking advantage of “free” services that collect their data to sell personalized ads space.
that it model which has earned along the company with Other advertising giants like Google, dozens of Billions of dollars a year.
For years, the Facebook homepage proudly proclaimed that the site was “and always will be free.”
but in 2019 the company quietly abandoned the logo. At the time, experts suggested that the reason for this was value of Users’ personal data means that the site has never been truly free.
In 2022, Meta has seen revenue from ads decline for the first time since and based in california group gold public in 2012.
company recently announced this number of Facebook users daily hit 2 billion – but between inflation eating into advertisers’ budgets and inflating competition from apps Like TikTok, these users don’t fetch files in As much revenue as they used to.
The company owns also Suffers from regulatory changes Introduced by iPhone maker Apple, which restricts ability of social Networks to collect data and sell ads.
similar factors already Pushing other networks, from Reddit to Snapchat and Twitter, to launch payments plans.
meta also under pressure for Take a huge gamble on Metaverse, and world of virtual reality Which Zuckerberg thinks it will be next border online.
‘Not a.’ small expenses’
Investors last year punished meta, write company share price down by an astonishing two-thirds over 12 months, but the stock has regained some ground in 2023.
meta announced in November will lie off 11,000 employees or 13% of Its employees – the biggest reduction of workers in company history.
Meta Verified will be cheaper on the web from on mobile applications because of Commissions taken by Apple on iPhone or Google on Android smartphones system.
Zuckerberg said it would cost $11.99 on the web, and $14.99 per month on iOS or Android.
The company said that it does not expect to generate significant revenue from the service during the period test phase But this is part of diversification efforts.
“Personally, I think it is more about revenue diversification,” said Carolina Milanesi, M.D analyst in creativity strategies.
After Twitter launched its other subscription social media She told Agence France-Presse that the groups thought, “Well, maybe we’ll try too.”
Justify it from A creator perspective I think is more of Promotion from of true value for creators,” she added.
combat platforms for Users and influencers who catch their eye.
but for Milanesi, Meta’s verified offerings are a “weird mix”.
“Me, no know If he gives enough to one class (of users) to justify amount of moneywhich is not a file small expenses.”
