The group led by Mark Zuckerberg follows in the footsteps of Snapchat and Twitter in seeking a more consistent revenue stream than the advertising business
Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., is finalizing a paid service called Meta Verified, which will include a number of additional perks and features, including payer account verification stamps in the style of what Twitter has been doing since it was acquired by the US. tycoon Elon Musk. The new subscription, which will be tested first in Australia and New Zealand starting next week, will cost $11.99 per month ($11.18) or $14.99 ($13.98) if purchased through the iOS app. app and is mainly for content creators.
In addition to a verification badge, the subscription includes “proactive account protection, access to account support, and increased visibility and reach,” a Meta spokesperson explained in a statement collected by Bloomberg. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new product through his Instagram channel. The option will be available on both Facebook and Instagram, but they will be separate subscriptions.
Subscription offers have become popular in recent years for social media companies as a way to diversify their businesses, which rely heavily on advertising. For example, Snap Inc. for example, an offering called Snapchat Plus, and Twitter Inc. is also currently pushing a subscription offering, with account verification being a major selling point.
Meta derives almost all of its revenue from advertising, but that business can be quite volatile and hit hard by the wider economy. For example, Meta’s business was hit hard at the start of the pandemic and again last year during the war in Europe and rising inflation. Subscriptions provide a more consistent revenue stream.
However, it is not clear whether users want to pay for services that have always been free. Twitter’s subscription offerings are slow to take off. In this case, the most valuable aspect of the Meta subscription package is the increased “visibility”, as standing out on Facebook or Instagram is more difficult these days, even among a user’s own followers.
Higher visibility, according to the company, would mean greater exposure in some areas of the platform, such as search, comments, and recommendations. Also, unlike Twitter, which does not verify a user’s identity through subscription, Meta will require users to confirm their identity with a government ID in order to receive a verification badge.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
