Facebook, Instagram Expected to Get More Paid Features

Citing an internal memo sent out to employees, The Verge is reporting that Meta is setting up a new team that will be tasked with building paid experiences across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Being set up after the company’s ads business was severely hurt by Apple’s ad tracking changes on iOS, this Meta division named “New Monetization Experiences” will be led by the company’s former head of research Pratiti Raychoudhury.

“I think we do see opportunities to build new types of products, features, and experiences that people would be willing to pay for and be excited to pay for,” said Meta’s VP of monetization John Hegeman in a recent interview.

Meta’s revenue almost entirely comes from advertising. In the longer term, however, the social networking giant sees paid features becoming a more meaningful part of its business.

“On a five-year time horizon I do think it can really move the needle and make a pretty significant difference,” Hegeman said.

“We’re obviously paying attention to what’s going on in the industry,” said Hegeman. “And I think there are multiple companies that have done interesting things in this space that I think hopefully we can learn from and emulate over time.”

TikTok started testing paid subscriptions for creators earlier this year, whereas Telegram and Snapchat both have introduced paid tiers to unlock additional features.