Facebook and Instagram users will soon receive a new paid verified badge option in the form of Meta Verification. The $12/month on the web and $15/month on the iOS and Android subscription will grant users a Blue Tick to their account name for increased visibility in search, reviews and recommendations as well as a identity theft protection, priority customer support and exclusive features.
After spending almost twenty years defending an economic model based on free services, Mark Zuckerberg is changing course. After Twitter users, those of Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram) will soon be able to display a blue badge, a guarantee of authenticity, and better promote their messages, the boss of the Californian group presented on Sunday.
From Meta Paid Verification, subscribers will be able to have their account verified on Facebook and Instagram by providing an official ID card, and then display a “blue badge”, signaling that they are who they say they are. Their account will also be better protected against the risk of identity theft through proactive monitoring. In the event of a problem, subscribers can contact customer service employees directly.
And their messages, photos and videos will be relayed better than others, appearing at the top of search results, comments and recommendations. Meta also promises new creative features.
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Optional Subscription
The subscription will be available first in Australia and New Zealand this week, then will be extended to other countries, starting with the United States. It will cost 11.99 dollars (11.22 euros) per month for users who subscribe to it on the web, and 14.99 dollars for those who use mobile applications (to compensate for the commission charged by Apple or Google on spending on smartphones or tablets). The test phase should allow him to evaluate and possibly adjust his offer based on feedback.
Subscription is optional, and the platforms will remain free. Interested users must be at least 18 years old and companies don’t have access, but Meta isn’t ruling out including them in the future.
The new offer is primarily aimed at content creators. Meta told AFP that it designed Meta Verified based on requests received from up-and-coming creators.
Meta’s strategy is part of a context where historical social networks are seeing their number of users grow, and their revenues sink. In 2022, the Californian group saw its advertising revenue decline for the first time since it went public in 2012. As inflation eats away at advertisers’ budgets, user attention is divided between many applications and those they can no longer collect as much personal data as before the intervention of the authorities (especially European) and Apple to better protect privacy online.