Meta Launches Paid Subscription, For Whom And Why?
Meta is responding as established social networks see both their user base and income fall.
Meta platform users will soon be able to follow in the footsteps of Twitter users by adding a blue badge to their accounts as a sign of legitimacy and promoting their postings for a charge.
On Sunday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the subscription service for Facebook and Instagram, after nearly 20 years of defending a business strategy centred on free services and advertising.
Two-speed system
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Meta -Lunches Paid Subscription.
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Subscribers to Meta Verified will be able to verify their Facebook and Instagram accounts by presenting an authentic ID and receiving a blue badge confirming that they are who they claim to be.
Because of the proactive monitoring, their account will be better secured against identity theft.
These subscribers will be able to contact customer care staff immediately if difficulties arise.
And their posts, photographs, and videos will have a larger prominence than non-subscribers' since they will appear at the top of search results, commentary, and recommendations.
Meta also promises new creative capabilities.
This week, Meta Verified will be launched in Australia and New Zealand before expanding to markets in the United States and other nations.
Users will pay $11.99 per month for the new service.
Priority for influencers
The subscription will be entirely optional. Only those above the age of 18 will be permitted to subscribe. Businesses can't currently use the service, but Meta doesn't rule it out in the future.
The new service is primarily aimed at content makers.
Meta told AFP that it came up with the subscription idea in response to demands from creators who are expanding their commercial ventures.
Meta is responding as established social networks see both their user base and income fall.
Meta's ad revenue fell in 2022 for the first time since the California-based company went public in 2012.
Inflation is eroding online advertising' budgets, and consumers' attention is being divided across several applications. The latter can no longer acquire as much personal data as they did before regulatory authorities, mostly in Europe, and Apple intervened to better safeguard people's online privacy.
As a result, the platform war has begun. "It's become a bit of a competition for recruiting and maintaining creative," Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies, said.
Yet, this is insufficient.
Snapchat, Reddit, and Discord are all proposing to charge customers a few bucks per month for additional capabilities.
Twitter, which Elon Musk purchased last year, launched an account verification option that costs $7 a month on the Internet and $11 per month on an iPhone in a shambles.
The coveted check mark on Twitter Blue allows users to better advertise their content, see less advertising, and have greater creative flexibility with lengthier tweets.
Milanesi believes Meta wishes to broaden its revenue streams.
Other social media sites decided "oh, we may as well try" when Twitter started its subscription service, she told AFP.
"I believe justifying it from a creator standpoint is more of a marketing pitch than actual value to artists," she continued.
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