Meta is exploring paid Facebook and Instagram features

After years of operating its businesses with little to no monetization features, Meta is creating an organization to develop new “paid features” for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Recently, an internal memo was sent to Meta employees and obtained by The Verge. The memo outlined plans for this new division, called New Monetization Experiences.

Since Facebook’s inception, the platform and its subsidiaries have made the vast majority of their money from advertising.

READ MORE: Instagram is adding more ways to control your Feed

But the ad business took a hit recently, thanks to Apple’s ad tracking transparency and the push for user privacy online.

“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 VP of monetization, John Hegeman to The Verge.

Meta is looking for potential new monetization avenues for its products. The company’s VP of monetization, John Hegeman, told The Verge that we likely wouldn’t see major paid features in the immediate future.

But five years down the line, that will likely be much different. “On a five-year time horizon, I do think it [paid features] can really move the needle and make a pretty significant difference.”

Meta is forming a new division to build paid features for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp

VP of Monetization @johnwhegeman tells me that Meta wants paid features to be a bigger part of the biz over time. (No, you won’t be able to pay to turn off ads.) https://t.co/2HJ2tvpxdw

— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) August 31, 2022

And Meta isn’t the only social platform adding paid features to its service. Twitter has Twitter Blue and paid Super Followers. TikTok has paid subscriptions, and Snapchat offers a paid tier with exclusive features.

READ MORE: Facebook’s new Community Chats feature is basically Discord

In fact, Meta has already added a few paid features, but they are focused on creators earning money.

The company now allows Facebook and Instagram creators to monetize their profiles. But it also says that it won’t be taking a cut of these monetization efforts until 2024.

Meta won’t be giving up on its ad business by any means. However, the company is looking to evolve with new revenue streams. And it looks like that’s going to come in the form of paid features on its social media platforms.

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