Meta Is Rolling Out A New Subscription Service Called Meta Verified For Instagram & Facebook
Meta will start rolling out a new subscription service called Meta Verified across Instagram and Facebook.
How It Works
The service is initially being rolled out in Australia and New Zealand, and subscribers will pay $11.99/month on the web or $14.99/month on iOS in exchange for:
A verified badge
More impersonation protection
Direct access to a real person for customer support
Increased visibility and reach
Exclusive features
Hit Or Miss
Meta now joins Twitter, Snapchat, and Telegram, which have recently added subscription services. They have been hit or miss, though.
For instance, Twitter Blue has only attracted around 300,000 subscribers in one and a half years. And Elon Musk has resorted to offering blue checks and removing previously free features like SMS two-factor authorization to entice more subscribers. On the other hand, Snapchat+ has already accumulated more than 2.5 million subscribers within seven months of launch by offering exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features.
The Potential Of Meta Verified
Meta Verified has the potential to be a hit due to the verified badge component. Many stories have emerged of people resorting to extreme measures to obtain the highly sought-after blue check, so paying the monthly fee equivalent to just a cup or two of coffee won’t seem like much for the status symbol that the blue check has become. This will be a problem over time, though. If everyone can get a badge, then what is the value of one? Increased visibility and reach, such as subscribers appearing more often in Recommendations, will also be appealing. Recommendations are one of the best ways for creators to grow today, so for a creator to get their content surfaced consistently in places like Explore means that they likely can accelerate their audience growth.
Emergence Of Subscription Services
The impact of Apple's privacy changes in 2021 and the current global economic conditions have led to a significant decline in advertising revenue for platforms like Meta. It's estimated that Apple's privacy changes cost it a loss of $10 billion in advertising revenue alone.
As a result, subscription services are emerging as a popular way for platforms to diversify their revenue stream and expand before advertising. With their massive user bases, platforms have a significant opportunity to recoup lost advertising revenue by getting some of their users to pay. It won't be easy, though, as social media platforms have mostly been "free" to use. In addition to changing that perception, platforms must offer features beyond charging for previously free features and paid-for badges for long-term success and mass adoption.
