Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram will soon get paid features: Report

Ever since Apple introduced the App Tracking Transparency feature for iOS devices and updated its privacy policy, Meta’s Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram ad revenue has dipped significantly, with a report by Bloomberg suggesting that the year will get worse for the company. Now it looks like Meta plans to offset some of this decline with a strategy for ‘paid’ features across its core products.

This was first reported by The Verge and according to an internal memo sent to employees, it looks like the company has begun working across the features. In June this year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company won’t be earning commission from paid features until 2024, adds the same report.

Meta has reportedly set up a new product organisation named ‘New Monetisation Experiences,’ adds the report. In an interview with The Verge, Meta’s VP of monetisation, John Hegeman, said, “I think we do see opportunities to build new types of products, features, and experiences that people would be willing to pay for and be excited to pay for.” However, he did not confirm when these paid features would come out and added that ads would still remain across the core apps.

Of course, the focus on ads still makes sense, considering it drives a majority of Meta’s revenue– though it has been impacted badly this year with a significant drop in the digital advertising business. But it is interesting to see Meta look at the idea of paid features in its key products. It was reported earlier by WSJ that before Apple rolled out the ‘App Tracking Transparency’, Facebook was in talks with the iPhone maker about a possible paid version of the app on the App Store. That we know did not happen.

Social media companies introducing a subscription model is not new and this is an idea which appears to be gaining more credence, especially as advertising revenue declines. Twitter, for instance, has its ‘Twitter Blue’ paid subscription service where those who pay for this get access to special features. Still, Twitter has not made it available globally. For Meta and its apps with billions of users, paid features could prove to be a new steady source of revenue and thus it is not surprising if the company does eventually roll them out.