Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta, announced Sunday that the company will launch a subscription service called Meta Verified, which will include additional benefits and features, including an account verification badge for paid users.
Facebook launches subscription service
The subscription fee for Meta certification is $11.99 per month on the web and $14.99 per month on the iOS platform, mainly for content creators. Meta will offer the service on both Facebook and Instagram, but with separate subscriptions. In addition to the verification badge, the subscription service includes “proactive account protection, account support, and increased visibility and reach,” a Meta spokesperson said in an email. Meta will roll out the service initially in New Zealand and Australia later this week before gradually expanding to other countries.
Subscription services have become popular among social networking companies in recent years. Social media companies, which rely heavily on advertising for revenue, are looking to diversify their revenue with subscription services. In November last year, after Elon Musk acquired Twitter, he launched the Blue V subscription service for the company, which costs $8 a month, also in order to improve the company’s revenue situation.
It’s unclear, though, whether users will be willing to pay for the service, which has always been free. Twitter’s subscription service got off to a slow start. Perhaps, the most valuable aspect of the Meta subscription package will be the “increased visibility”. It’s much harder these days for users to stand out on Facebook or Instagram, even among their own followers. The company has started pushing users to read more about content they might be interested in, not necessarily content about people they follow.
