Paid Twitter will charge users to protect their accounts with double verification through text messages
Meta Mark Zuckerberg launches a paid subscription to authenticate accounts on Facebook and Instagram
Mark Zuckerberg
announced a subscription service to
Meta's social networks on Sunday.
For about 12 dollars a month (11.25 euros at the current exchange rate) users receive some additional benefits and tools on their
Facebook Instagram
and
Facebook Messenger accounts,
although none on
WhatsApp.
It is a service similar to the one that
Elon Musk
has redesigned on
Twitter.
Although Twitter Blue was launched before the tycoon bought the social network at the end of last year, Musk has given it a face lift, added new features and raised the price to $8 a month (about 7.50 euros to change). current), something more if it is contracted from the mobile due to the commissions charged by the app stores.
ADVERTISING IS NOT ENOUGH
Behind these services is the same problem.
Social networks
depend on advertising,
but global financial instability is starting to take its toll on this sector.
Many companies are trying to cut operating costs now that
it is much more difficult to finance
due to high interest rates, and that means layoffs but also lower budgets for advertising campaigns.
Twitter, for example, has lost more than half of its advertisers since Musk's arrival.
Part of Twitter's problem is Musk's own abrasive and polarizing attitude, which has
scared off a number of companies,
but even without that factor, he faces a much more complex market than he did just a year ago.
The only solution is to start replacing part of the business lost in advertising with
subscription services.
Convince the most active users to pay to use social networks that until now were free.
It is not easy, but both companies are trying with various tools and advantages for those who decide to go home.
VERIFIED
From the outset, the most attractive advantage of the new services is the
verification of user accounts.
Until now, Twitter and Meta only verified accounts that were at risk of being impersonated, such as those of politicians, journalists,
influencers
or artists.
This has given the verification symbol a certain aura of exclusivity and prestige.
Now, for an amount per month, any user can display the same symbol.
Both Twitter and Meta ask that a photo of an official identification
(such as the DNI or passport in the case of Spain)
be sent to activate the verification.
Users also have to provide a valid phone number.
For that $12 a month you ask, Meta offers other tools and services.
Add, for example, a better support and help service, with direct access to a person in case of any incident.
It also
monitors the account
to prevent impersonation by other users.
The company also ensures that paying users will have more visibility on
and Facebook.
Your content will be featured first in search, comments, and recommendations.
Finally, the service also includes exclusive stickers and labels to use in tools such as
stories .
Of course,
it does not remove advertising.
At the moment the service is only active in the test phase in
New Zealand.
Facebook's advantage here is that it has a huge active user base (3.5 billion worldwide).
With only a very small part signing up, you can already generate enough income to justify the existence of the subscription service.
In addition to verification,
Twitter Blue
also offers some additional benefits, such as Meta.
Paying users can write much longer tweets, up to 4,000 characters, upload longer and higher quality videos, and gain access to special tools and features, such as the ability to edit tweets, view threads much more comfortably, or access to better tools for saving interesting tweets.
This week, Twitter has also limited the option of account protection through
two-factor verification
by SMS and only those who pay will be entitled to it.
The rest will have to use authentication apps or security keys if they want to maintain two-factor authentication, a recommended option.
Twitter has also ensured that it will give priority to tweets from verified users in responses and searches and that
users who pay for the service will see only half of the ads,
but for now these functions are not active.
Twitter's subscription service is somewhat cheaper than Meta's, but it also starts from a very different situation.
Although it is a network with enormous importance in certain sectors, such as the media, it has
far fewer active users
than Meta, which complicates Musk's equation.
Leaked data suggests that only
about 300,000 people have signed up for the service in the first few months,
far too few, at the moment, to make up for the loss of advertising revenue.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Goal
Twitter
Facebook
instagram