Facebook and Instagram to Test Subscription Service

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced it will start rolling out Meta Verified later this week.

For a monthly fee, Meta Verified subscribers will be able to confirm the authenticity of their identity on Facebook and Instagram and improve their reach with enhanced visibility in some areas of the platforms, such as search results and recommendations.

Additional advantages of the subscription include access to live customer support, improved protection against impersonation, and enhanced features such as exclusive stickers for Facebook and Instagram Reels.

Individuals wishing to subscribe must be 18 years or older, meet minimum activity requirements, and provide government-issued ID that matches their current profile name and photo. Businesses will not be eligible to subscribe to this version of the service, and previously verified accounts will not be affected by this new feature.

Meta Verified will first be rolled out in Australia and New Zealand. The monthly subscription will be available for $11.99 USD for web users and $14.99 USD for iOS and Android users. Although no date has yet been set for a wider roll out of the service, the company hopes to “bring Meta Verified to the rest of the world soon.”

Since its inception, Meta has not charged any fees for most of its services, opting to generate revenue primarily through advertising. The announcement for this new subscription service comes after Meta reported a decline in revenue year-over-year in the last three quarters. Meta has also suffered market losses and cut costs by laying off 13% of its workforce in November 2022.

Meta’s proposed verification process comes just months after Twitter announced it would start charging users a monthly fee for its verified “blue checkmark.” Since the controversial move, less than 200,000 people (about 0.2% of Twitter’s monthly active users), have signed up for this service.