In the midst of the financial crisis, Meta unveils a paid certification for Instagram and Fabebook accounts via the monthly Meta Verified subscription. A strategy inspired by that of Elon Musk with Twitter Blue. Will it also be a disaster?
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, has been going through a turbulent zone for the past few months. Between the loss of advertising revenue following Apple’s decision to let its users choose whether or not to accept tracking of their devices – unsurprisingly, many refuse – and the total failure of the metaverse – which is a real chasm which results in a loss of more than two billion dollars each quarter – no wonder the company was forced to lay off 11,000 employees in November 2022! To replenish the coffers, she must now find a new source of income, and for this she was inspired by other social networks. Indeed, some of them offer paid subscriptions in order to benefit from new functions and/or a verification badge. This is the case of Snapchtat+ and Twitter Blue, the latter having been quite problematic at the time of its launch – it did not have the expected success since only 0.2% of monthly users in the US subscribed to it. It’s Facebook and Instagram’s turn to offer paid certification with the Meta Verified subscription.
Meta Verified: A security-focused copy of Twitter Blue
Currently in the test phase in Australia and New Zealand, the Meta Verified subscription will allow you to obtain your certification badge on Facebook and Instagram for a fee in order to “strengthen the authenticity and security of our services”, explains Mark Zuckerberg on his social networks. Note however that, contrary to what was done with Twitter Blue, Meta does not intend to remove the badge from already verified accounts, and these will continue to be certified without the need to subscribe. Once the account has been verified, it is no longer possible to modify its profile, photo or identifier without having to go through the verification process again. In addition to this little blue badge, subscriptions have access to exclusive stickers for their Stories and Reels, to 100 Stars – the virtual currency that allows you to support creators on Facebook – free per month, to greater visibility with other users. and priority access to platform customer service. The offer is currently priced at $11.99 per month for the web version and $14.99 per month on Android and iOS – the cost is higher due to commissions from official app stores.
To prevent a wave of fake accounts and scams from hitting the platforms with this new system – which was the case when Twitter Blue was launched and had caused some companies to lose thousands of dollars – Meta imposes certain conditions , as the firm explains on his site. Thus, the user must be at least 18 years old, make a minimum number of interactions with the applications of the platform and provide an official identity document which corresponds to the profile name and photo of the Facebook or Instagram account. The company explains that “longer-term, we want to build a membership offering that has value for everyone, including creators, businesses, and our wider community” so that “more people can trust the authenticity of the accounts they interact with”.