Facebook parent Meta is currently testing whether users are willing to pay for certain features such as account verification, impersonation protection, and increased visibility and reach, among others. This move follows a similar approach taken by its social media rival Twitter to charge for account verification.
On February 19, the social networking giant announced a new subscription bundle called "Meta Verified," which will be available for a monthly fee of $11.99 on the web and $14.99 on mobile. The higher price on iOS is likely to offset Apple's commission fee on subscriptions. The service will be available in Australia and New Zealand this week and will soon be expanded to other countries.
This announcement comes just two months after Twitter relaunched a revamped version of its subscription service, Twitter Blue, under new owner Elon Musk. The service became available in India on February 8 for a monthly fee of Rs 650 on the web and Rs 900 on mobile devices.
Through these offerings, social media firms hope to diversify their revenue streams and become less dependent on digital advertising, which experienced a sharp decline in 2022. In June 2022, Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc introduced Snapchat+, a paid subscription service that offers users a collection of exclusive features for a monthly fee.
Verified badge
A major selling point for both services is account verification. This has been a bone of contention for several users in recent years, primarily due to the opaque nature in which they were previously rolled out to people.
Meta Verified subscribers will be able to verify their account with a government ID to receive a blue verified badge as well as additional impersonation protection against imposter accounts. This feature is currently available only to users who are at least 18 years old. Businesses cannot currently apply for this badge.
People can enroll their Facebook and Instagram accounts on Meta Verified, but each will require a separate subscription. This means that people will have to pay at least $24 per month to verify their accounts on both platforms. However, the company intends to offer subscription bundles in the future.
Those who already have verified accounts on Facebook and Instagram will be able to retain them at no cost, Meta said. In addition, the company will continue to offer verified badges to Facebook profiles and Pages that are "in the public interest" and meet their verification criteria.
Twitter, in contrast, is abandoning its old verification system and only offering the blue tick badge to Twitter Blue subscribers. Twitter does not verify the identities of individuals who register for the service. In addition, Elon Musk has previously stated that verified Twitter users who are not subscribed to Twitter Blue will soon lose their verification.
Increased visibility
Another major draw of the subscription service will be increased visibility and reach across Meta's platforms, as the company has begun focusing more on algorithmic content recommendations on user feeds, powered by its AI-based discovery engine, rather than content from people they follow.
Meta stated that this increased visibility will mean "prominence" in some areas of the platform, such as search, comments and recommendations, a move that will likely benefit content creators and social media influencers.
However, the company notes that this visibility may vary depending on the subscriber's current audience size and the topic of their posts. Subscribers with a smaller following may see a more noticeable impact to their reach since their audiences are smaller, it stated.
Twitter has also stated that it intends to prioritise tweets from Twitter Blue subscribers in search as well as conversations they participate in on the platform, including replies and mentions.
Priority support
Meta Verified subscribers will get direct access to a "real person for common account issues", the company said.
On the other hand, Twitter subscribers will get access to dedicated support for only subscription-specific issues or features that are exclusive to Twitter Blue. They won't receive any preference in customer support for account-related issues.
That said, Twitter plans to restrict SMS-based two-factor authentication mode to Twitter Blue subscribers from March 20, 2023.
Ads on the platform
Meta has not disclosed any plans to reduce the number of advertisements shown to people who sign up for the service. Twitter, on the other hand, has stated that Blue subscribers will see 50% fewer ads in their home timeline.
Bells and whistles
People who sign up for the Meta Verified service will get exclusive stickers on Facebook, Facebook Reels and Instagram Stories along with 100 free stars a month that people can use to tip creators on Facebook. The company stated that it also plans to offer exclusive features that will help consumers "express yourself in unique ways"
Meanwhile, Twitter Blue subscribers get a range of additional features, such as the ability to edit tweets, post long tweets of up to 4,000 characters, and long videos of up to 60 minutes (2GB file size) through web, organise bookmarks, customise the app icon, and add NFT profile pictures, in addition to early access to new features.
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