Soon, American Facebook and Instagram users will be able to pay to have the coveted blue check displayed on their accounts. CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted on Instagram that Meta has started testing a paid verification option for American members of the two social networks on Friday. During the coming weeks, the company intends to progressively expand the American customer base of the premium alternative.
Beginning at $11.99 per month for the web or $14.99 per month for mobile, Meta Verified was initially trialed in February in Australia and New Zealand. Along with authentication, the option comes with benefits including increased security against impersonator accounts and easy access to customer service.
Customers who desire the blue badge must present a government ID that matches their profile name and photo in order to prevent false accounts. To use the new service, users must be older than 18. The goal of this new feature, according to Zuckerberg, is to increase authenticity and security across all of our services, he stated in a broadcast channel on Instagram in February.
Meta joins other websites with subscription-based business structures, such as Discord, Reddit, and YouTube. Twitter revived its own verification subscription service, Twitter Blue, in December, after an onslaught of bogus “confirmed” accounts prompted it to remove the feature. After purchasing the network for $44 billion, owner Elon Musk is trying to increase its subscriptions business via Twitter Blue, which costs $11 per month for iOS and Android users.
At a time when its primary ad sales business is under pressure from a number of sources, including privacy rules on Apple and cutting budgets amid recession fears, the move holds the prospect of additional revenue stream outside of advertising for Meta.
