According to The Verge’s note, the new chapter is the first serious step towards building paid features on Meta’s main social apps, all three of which have billions of users.
Meta’s ad business was founded after Apple’s ad-tracking changes in iOS were severely damaged by a pullback in digital ad spend.
The group, called New Monetization Experiences, will be led by Pratiti Raychoudhury, formerly Meta’s head of research.
ADVERTISING WILL NOT BE CLOSED
John Hegeman, Meta’s vice president of revenue and overseeing the group, said in an interview with The Verge that the company is committed to growing its advertising business and has no plans to allow people to pay to turn off ads in its apps.
“I think we’re seeing opportunities to create new kinds of products, features, and experiences that people will be willing and excited to pay for.” said.
He declined to elaborate on the paid features that are being considered.
Meta’s revenue comes almost entirely from ads, and although it already has several paid features in its apps, the social media giant has so far not made charging users a priority.
Facebook group admins can already charge for access to exclusive content, and virtual “stars” can be purchased to send to creators.
WhatsApp charges certain businesses to be able to send messages to their customers, and Instagram recently announced that creators can start charging a subscription fee for accessing exclusive content.
In June, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company will not cut operations from paid features and subscriptions until 2024.