Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp may Receive Paid Features, But You Should not be Concerned.

Meta now owns three of the most popular messaging apps and social media platforms: WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. Meta will be looking at more ways to add possible paid features across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram in order to grow its ad business further in the future. Each of these platforms has over one billion active users and a total of over five billion monthly active users.

According to a new report from The Verge, Meta sent an internal memo to employees last week stating that the company is forming a product organization to identify and build "possible paid features" for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Let's get into the specifics.

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Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp: Meta’s New Monetisation Experiences

This new division is Meta's first foray into developing paid features across its three main social apps, which can be referred to as the company's three pillars. The new unit is being established after Meta's ad business suffered a significant revenue drop in the second quarter of 2022. Pratiti Raychoudhury, who was previously Meta's head of research, will lead the newly formed group called New Monetization Experiences.

According to the report, Meta has no plans to charge users to turn off ads in its apps. This is due to the fact that advertisements account for a significant portion of Meat's revenue. While the company already has several paid features across its apps, charging users has not been a priority until now.

For the time being, Facebook group administrators can charge for access to exclusive content, and virtual stars can be purchased to send to creators. WhatsApp, on the other hand, charges businesses for the ability to message their customers.

Finally, Instagram recently announced that creators may charge a subscription fee for access to exclusive content. Although Mark Zuckerberg stated in June that the company would not take a cut of transactions from paid features and subscriptions until 2024, this may change in the future.

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In an interview with The Verge, John Hegeman, Meta's VP of Monetization, said, "on the flip side, 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 says that five years from now paid features will be a more meaningful part of its business because they will be more polished.

Why “Possible” Paid Features Won’t be For Regular Users

While we don't yet know what kind of paid features Meta will add to its apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and others in the coming years, these paid features would ideally be aimed at content creators or businesses rather than ordinary users. Furthermore, even if Meta adds a paid feature for a regular user, it may be an optional one, as the core functionality of these is expected to remain free in perpetuity.

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One of the reasons why WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram have so many active users is that they are free apps, and adding a paid function to Meta may not be ideal. Given that the possibility of a paid feature is being discussed internally, we may not see the implementation of such features before 2023.