“Meta Verified” will be accessible from $ 11.99 per month (11.20 euros). Reserved for individuals and professionals over the age of 18, this subscription will not be open to business accounts.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta boss (Facebook, Instagram), announced on Sunday, February 19, the launch of “Meta Verified”, a paying subscription from 11.99 dollars per month (11.20 euros) to authenticate his account on group platforms.
The formula, which will first be deployed in Australia and New Zealand this week, looks like that set up by Elon Musk on Twitter, with identity check and advantages like “Access direct to customer service “. “The idea is to improve the authenticity [of profiles] and security on our services,” said Mark Zuckerberg in a broadcast message On its Facebook account .
On Facebook and Instagram, subscribers will have a badge showing that their identity has been verified, as well as protections on their behalf (especially against identity theft), access to customer service and more visibility, According to a spokesperson from Meta. The contents of creators subscribed to “Meta Verified” will thus be disseminated more widely and will appear at the top of the results of research and recommendations.
The subscription is reserved for individuals and professionals over 18 years of age, and it is not open to business accounts.
Fall of advertising revenue
The Facebook slogan, launched in 2004, has long been “it’s free (and it will always remain)” – it had been replaced by “it’s fast and easy” in August 2019. Facebook established The dominant model of large online platforms: users take advantage of free services that collect personal information about them to target it with personalized advertising. Praised by advertisers, Google and Meta quickly became the dominant players in the sector.
But, in 2022, Meta saw its advertising revenue decline for the first time since the group entered the stock market in 2012. Facebook alone reached the two billion active users on a daily basis. But between the inflation that pisses the budgets of advertisers and the competition of other applications like Tiktok, these users no longer report as much as before in Meta. The company also suffers from the regulatory changes established by Apple, which bridage the capacity of social networks to collect user data to sell ultracible advertising spaces.
These factors have already pushed other networks, from Reddit to Snapchat, to launch paid formulas. Bought by Elon Musk in the fall of 2022, Twitter set up “Blue”, a subscription to authenticate your account, make your tweets appear in priority and see less advertising, among other advantages.
“Blue” and “Meta Verified” do not cost the same price depending on whether the subscription is taken out on the web or on the mobile application, because of the commissions taken by Apple (iOS operating system) on iPhone and Google (Android). Users will therefore pay $ 11.99 a month for “Meta Verified” on the Internet, or 14.99 dollars per month (14 euros) on iOS or on Android.
Meta has set up a massive social plan in the fall, removing 13 % of its workforce.