According to an internal email delivered to staff last week, Meta is establishing a product division to discover and create “potential paid products” for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The new subsidiary marks Meta’s first substantial step into developing paid services for its three core social programs, all of which have billions of users. It’s being launched after Apple’s ad tracking modifications on iOS, as well as a general decline in digital ad expenditure, significantly harmed Meta’s ad business. Pratiti Raychoudhury, who was formerly Meta’s chief of research, will lead the New Monetization Experiences division.
Meta’s VP of monetization, John Hegeman, who oversees the division, said the firm is still dedicated to developing its ad business and has no intentions to charge customers to turn off advertisements in its applications. “I believe we see potential to create new sorts of goods, services, and experiences that customers are eager and happy to pay for,” he added. He declined to comment on the premium features under consideration.
The majority of Meta’s revenue comes from advertising, and while the social networking giant already offers various premium services throughout its applications, charging users hasn’t been a priority until now. Hegeman dismissed the possibility of paid features becoming a significant part of the business in the near future, but added, “on the other hand, I think if there are opportunities to both create new value and meaningful revenue lines and also provide some diversification, that’s obviously going to be something that will be appealing.”
Meta isn’t the only one advocating for additional paid features. Over the last few years, social networking applications have increasingly turned to charge. TikTok began experimenting with paid memberships for creators earlier this year, Twitter offers paid Super Follows, and Discord is wholly funded by its Nitro subscription. Furthermore, both Telegram and Snapchat added paid tiers this year that unlock additional features. Snapchat’s premium layer has been a big success thus far.
