Meta Verified: Tech giant announces paid subscription

The once courted tech companies from the legendary Silicon Valley in the US state of California are not doing well. Facebook and Instagram parent Meta is also affected by this. Accordingly, the company is not only cutting back on personnel expenses. On top of that, the company is experimenting with alternative sources of income. Meta, for its part, has now announced a premium subscription that users will have to pay for. With Meta Verified, the social media giant under the leadership of CEO Mark Zuckerberg now wants to follow a similar path as Twitter.

It’s not going well in Silicon Valley

Corona pandemic, Ukraine war, inflation – The last few months and years have presented a major challenge to the global economy and, by extension, to companies large and small. While a few have emerged as winners, others have been hit very hard. This also applies to the tech companies in Silicon Valley. At the latest since the immense increase in energy costs, the former high-flyers have had to make cuts. The main reason for this is probably the slump in advertising business. Many companies simply cannot afford to advertise on the platforms at the moment. This is obviously also noticeable in Meta’s figures. After all, the group is currently laying off employees in the five-digit range. With the personal protection of company boss Mark Zuckerberg one does not want to save however obviously.

After all, the company increased its expenditure from 10 million US dollars to a whopping 14 million US dollars. In addition to saving money, however, the focus is apparently also on new ways of making a profit. And here Meta could give up one of its “unique selling points” that has been valid for years. The company has always claimed to offer its services free of charge to users. What almost seemed like a big gift to the public brought Facebook and Co. billions in profits from advertising. As user numbers rose, so did the amounts Meta could charge its advertisers. But since the advertising customers are waning, the concept is apparently no longer really working. Accordingly, Meta now wants to offer premium subscriptions for its users. The model is said to go by the name “Meta Verified.”

Meta Verified reminds of Twitter Blue

Really new is the idea of paid subscriptions in a for years free social network of course not. After all, Twitter already made negative headlines last year when it became known that it was planning a kind of premium subscription at a hefty price with Twitter Blue. With this, the short message service also wanted to generate a new source of income in addition to the extensive cost-cutting measures. Similar to Twitter Blue, Meta Verified is also to feature a type of account verification. This means that anyone who wants to grab a coveted blue tick in the future will have to pay for it. Of course, Meta hardly says a word about the fact that it wants to generate money with the new subscription. Instead, the tech company is packaging this as a means of taking action against fake accounts.

Those who want to secure a verified account in the course of Meta Verified must first have their identity confirmed, including an ID check. This way, you can be really sure that this person and no one else is actually behind the account. Twitter does not go that far with its “authenticity offensive”. Once the identity check has been carried out, the blue checkmark is then displayed on Facebook or Instagram. On top of that, premium subscribers will receive direct customer support. Meta pays for this service package accordingly. Anyone who subscribes to Meta Verified via the Internet browser on the computer has to pay $11.99 per month. The app for iOS and Android is much more expensive. Here, the monthly fee is 14.99 US dollars.

Tests of Meta Verified in Australia and New Zealand

Before the premium subscription finds its way to our climes, Meta first wants to test it extensively. To this end, Meta Verified will initially only be available to users in Australia and New Zealand. After that, it will slowly but surely be rolled out across the globe. By the way, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also announced a few small digital goodies for Meta Verified subscribers in order to drum up a bit of publicity and win over potential customers. It seems that you will also receive exclusive stickers. These can then be used in Reels and Stories, which should appeal to Instagram users in particular.