Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, revealed on Sunday that it will launch a subscription-based paid verification service that to enable users to authenticate their accounts. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted in a Facebook article that the goal of the subscription service is to “improve authenticity and security across its services.”
The service, called Meta Verified, would cost $11.99 per month for the web and $14.99 per month for iOS. Users of the service will be able to submit their government ID to receive a confirmed blue badge and instant access to customer assistance. This week, Meta will begin rolling out its paid subscription service for verification, starting with Australia and New Zealand. The service will gradually expand and be accessible to more countries soon.
Meta’s paid verification service coincides with Twitter’s drive for a similar service in order to boost income. The social media behemoth headed by Elon Musk had launched a revamped version of the Twitter Blue subscription service that granted verified badges to users against a monthly fee. Twitter Blue has close to 290,000 subscribers as of February. Another social networking platform, Snapchat, provides Snapchat+ for $3.99 per month. 2 million users are using this service currently.
With diminishing advertising growth Meta has adopted a new business plan to diversify its sources of income. With its core social media programmes, like Facebook and Instagram, Meta has garnered phenomenal success, but recently, the revenue from online advertising has been declining. To extend Facebook’s appeal and boost engagement, the corporation has been experimenting with TikTok-like features.
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Under Zuckerberg, Meta invested billions in creating the immersive virtual reality environment known as Metaverse, where users may interact with one another and talk. The company is yet to profit from metaverse. Meta (formerly Facebook) is currently under pressure from investors to diversify its revenue stream to reduce its dependency on digital advertising since inflation and the impending recession have severely impacted its main business.
