​Meta Group created a team to analyze which services for a separate fee can be launched in social networks in the group. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have a number of paid features, but they are not making much money yet. This may change in five years. Meta gets most of its revenue from advertising, but after poor financial results, the company’s executives realized that they needed new sources of income.

The Verge obtained internal reports that show Meta has tasked the organization with identifying and creating “possible paid features for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.”

This is also a trend in other competing social networks, for example, paid features are also available on TikTok and Twitter. As for Facebook, by far the biggest social network, there were rumors a few years ago that an ad-free subscription version might be launched, but that idea never materialized.

John Hegeman, president of content monetization at Meta, said there are no plans to launch services where users pay to not see ads at all. But he explained that Meta wants to release products, features and experiences that people will be willing to pay for. and the team is looking for the best solutions in this regard.

The social networks of the Meta group also have paid services, but so far they have not been a priority. Hegeman noted that these paid services will not soon become a significant part of the business, but in five years the share of these paid services in the total turnover may become important.

John Hegeman says that Meta has been keeping a close eye on what’s going on in the industry, and the debate about paid services has heated up precisely because other big companies have also gotten in on the act.

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