Online life comes at a higher price! As Facebook and Twitter turn to squeezing cash out of users even dating sites like Tinder and Hinge hike price of their paid subscriptions
- Twitter and Facebook have recently unveiled paid plans that bill users to verify their accounts and access security features and other perks
- In their formative years, the platforms offered their full suite of features for free and relied on advertising for cash
- Introduction of subscription fees is part of renewed efforts by social media firms to monetize their huge user bases
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Online users wanting a better quality of life online will now have to pay up – as social media companies and dating apps introduce new paid subscriptions, and delivery apps hike the cost of their fees.
Both Twitter and Facebook have recently unveiled paid plans that bill users to verify their accounts and access security features and other perks.
The moves are part of increasing efforts by social media firms to monetize their huge user bases. Snapchat has also introduced a paid feature that gives users perks like customization options and a ‘BFF’ feature.
In their formative years, Facebook and Twitter offered their full suite of features for free and relied on advertising for cash. But now, as user numbers plateau and stock prices suffer, executives like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are turning to fees and subscription models to make money.
Dating apps like Tinder and Hinge have also increased their subscription fees – and introduced pricier ‘elite’ services. Combined with the rising costs of streaming platforms like Netflix, the shift by social media companies adds to the growing cost of using popular online services.
Social media companies that once offered their services free are now charging users monthly fees for premium features like increased account security and other perks
Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have added subscription models to their social media platforms
Meta CEO mark Zuckerberg announced last week that the company is rolling a new paid subscription service called Meta Verified, which will cost $11.99/month on web and $14.99/month on iOS.
The service will first be introduced in New Zealand and Australia this year, and will be available in other nations ‘soon’, according to Zuckerberg.
Customers will be able to verify their account using their government ID, get a ‘blue badge’ and ‘extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support’, Zuckerberg said.
The new verification system looks a lot like Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue service, which was rolled out in December after an initially-delayed launch.
Twitter’s blue check mark subscription costs users between eight and 11 dollars per month.
Twitter also announced last week that it will limit two-factor authentication – which adds an extra layer of security to accounts – to Blue subscribers, forcing users to pay if they want the feature.
Musk claimed the decision was made because Twitter was being ‘scammed’ out of $60million a year from fake two-factor authentication messages.
Elsewhere, Snapchat – which has about 375 million active users – now charges $3.99 for Snapchat+, which adds features like the ability to pin a friend as a BFF and view story rewatch counts.
Match Group, which owns apps including Tinder and Hinge, offers subscriptions aimed at helping users get more matches
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Meta says Facebook has nearly three billion active users. User numbers enjoyed a rapid increase in the years following the site’s launch in 2004, but growth has slowed dramatically since 2021. Instagram, which is also owned by Meta, has about 1.3 billion active users.
Meta’s stock lost 60 percent of its value last year before its price increased slightly at the start of 2023 – but only after Zuckerberg announced thousands of job cuts.
Twitter, which had nearly 370 million active users in 2022, was bought by Musk last year in a $44billion deal.
Match Group, which owns a string of popular dating apps, is currently gauging user interest in a version of its Tinder app that would cost a staggering $500 per month.
The company is also introducing a new $60-a-month subscription tier for Hinge, another of its apps, aim at its ‘most intentioned users’ who have a ‘higher propensity to pay’.
Match hopes the new tier, which offers features that will get users seen by potential matches faster, will bring in at least $100 million of direct revenue in 2023, Bloomberg reported.
Match Group stock also lost nearly two thirds of its value last year.
