Mark Zuckerberg announced the creation of a subscription to authenticate Facebook and Instagram accounts using an identity card.
The idea is to improve the authenticity and security of our services. Mark Zuckerberg announced this Sunday the creation of a subscription for the social networks of the Meta Group. Called Meta Verified, this option gives access to the verification of a person’s accounts, both on Facebook and Instagram.
Very inspired by the paid certification launched by Elon Musk on Twitter, Meta Verified promises to better protect users of Meta group platforms against the risk of identity theft through proactive monitoring. Privileged access to customer service in the event of a problem is also advanced.
Awarding a blue tick
As with Twitter Blue, it’s all about gaining visibility. Messages, photos and videos posted by subscribers to the new service of Facebook and Instagram will benefit from better exposure. They need to be at the top of search results, reviews, and recommendations to reach a larger audience.
All of its advantages are underlined by the allocation of a blue tick. But to have access to it, the Meta group asks the user to provide his identity card. This implies that subscribers are required to display their real names on their profiles. Changes to username, date of birth or profile photo will not be possible and will trigger a new verification process. At least for the moment, assures the Meta group in a press release.
Currently only available in Australia and New Zealand, the Meta Verified service is offered for $11.99 per month. This amount only applies to users using a web browser. Mark Zuckerberg has taken over Elon Musk’s strategy of charging more for subscriptions from a smartphone to pass on the taxes applied by Apple and Google application stores. On mobile, it will therefore cost 14.99 dollars.
The Meta Group excludes companies from this offer. They will not be able to access it at launch, but should be integrated later, suggests Mark Zuckerberg.
A “strange mix”
But for Carolina Milanesi an analyst at Creative Strategies this paid formula lacks consistency. According to her Meta Verified brings together solutions to the needs of different types of users authentication for official organizations and personalities, promotion for influencers and security that should apply to everyone she believes.
I’m not sure there are enough things for any category of people to justify the expense, explains Carolina Milanesi to AFP, who points to a strange mixture.
The implementation of this paid device comes after a first drop in advertising revenue from the Meta group last year. The company’s strategy is thus part of a context where historical social networks are seeing their number of users grow, but their revenues fall.
In my opinion Meta wants above all to diversify its sources of income. Twitter has launched and the others say to themselves, we will try too comments Carolina Milanesi. And to add: The argument of attracting content creators is more about marketing than real value creation.
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