Meta is currently looking to integrate additional paid services and features on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. In any case, this is revealed by an internal memo sent to employees last week and relayed by our colleagues from The Verge.
Meta wants to add additional paid services and features on these three most popular apps, namely WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. In any case, this is revealed by an internal memo sent to employees last week and relayed by our colleagues from The Verge.
For the occasion, Meta has created a brand new division called New Monetization Experiences. We find at its head Pratiti Raychoudhury, former head of research at Meta. This new branch represents Meta’s first foray into the creation of paid features for its social applications.
It must be said that the group’s revenues were hit hard after the implementation of Apple’s anti-ad tracking tool on iOS 14.5. According to a study published in April 2022 by the analysis firm Lotame, losses for Facebook were estimated at 11.8 billion euros this year. At the same time, we learned in July 2022 that Facebook’s turnover had fallen drastically during the 1st quarter of 2022, a first in the history of the social network. Thus, the platform’s net profits have plummeted by 36% compared to the same period in 2021.
Meta looking for other sources of income
Knowing this, it is not surprising to see Meta bustle to find other sources of income. “I think we see opportunities to create new types of products, features and experiences that people would be willing to pay for and would be happy to pay for,” John Hegeman, Meta’s vice president of monetization, told The Verge.
Until then, Meta hadn’t made user billing a priority. However, the fall in its advertising revenue caused the company to review its strategy. Moreover, these paid functions could represent in the future a significant part of the activity of Meta if one believes John Hegeman. “Over a five-year horizon, I think it can really shake things up and make a pretty significant difference.” he assured.
Meta has already added paid features to its apps, such as paid subscriptions on Instagram or the Business version of WhatsApp, not to mention Facebook group administrators who can charge for access to their content. For the moment, Meta did not go into detail about these upcoming paid features on its flagship apps.
