Facebook and Instagram launch paid subscriptions in Australia and New Zealand

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Facebook's new "Meta Verified" service taken in Melbourne, Australia, on February 24, 2023. (WILLIAM WEST / AFP)
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The service will cost users 11.30 euros and could be extended to other countries if the experiment is successful.

Facebook and Instagram launched a week-long rollout of their first paid subscription service, "Meta Verified ," on Friday, February 24. Meta, the parent company of both social networks, is testing users' willingness to pay for features that were previously free. The feature is reminiscent of the paid nepal mobile database Twitter introduced in late 2022.

The service will cost $11.99 (€11.30) per month for users who sign up online and $14.99 for those who sign up through the mobile apps. Starting Friday, Australian subscribers who provide official ID will be able to request a blue badge, a guarantee of authenticity that will protect them against any risk of identity theft, the company assures.

"This new feature aims to strengthen the authenticity and security of our services ," wrote Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. Crucially, this move also provides Meta with a way to generate more revenue from its two billion users.

The growing army of influencers making their living online could represent the primary customer base for its paid services, experts say. Jonathon Hutchinson, a lecturer in online communications at the University of Sydney, noted that a kind of "VIP service" could be "a very attractive proposition for a content creator ." However, Meta has often been willing to test new, sometimes risky, models, only to abandon what doesn't work, he warned.