Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, will launch a subscription service pays from $11.99 a month that will allow users to verify their accounts on those social networks, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced, following a similar initiative by Elon Musk on Twitter.
“Meta Verified”, which will roll out first in Australia and New Zealand this week “and more countries soon”, it will allow users to “authenticate their account” and will give benefits such as “direct access to customer support”Zuckerberg said.
“This new function tries to increase the authenticity and security in all our services,” he explained in a statement posted on his Facebook account.
There will be no changes to Facebook and Instagram accounts that are already verified, the company said, adding that only users over the age of 18 will be able to subscribe. The service is not yet available for businesses.
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Musk’s initial attempts to launch a similar service on Twitter last year failed, with a series of fake accounts that cast doubt on the future of the site.
Meta’s announcement comes at a time when the social media giant has been facing financial difficulties since last year: in November it announced the layoff of 11,000 employees (13% of its staff), the largest reduction in workers in the company’s history.
This payroll cut at Meta is part of a wave of layoffs announced by Silicon Valley tech giants in recent months.
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Meta is also under pressure to make a big bet on the metaverse, the world of virtual reality that Zuckerberg believes represents the online future.
Investors penalized Meta last year, causing the company’s share price to fall by two-thirds in 12 months, but the shares regained some lost ground in 2023.
Zuckerberg has remained optimistic about the future of Meta. Earlier this month, the company posted its first annual sales drop since going public in 2012, but the loss was less brutal than expected.
The company also recently announced that the number of daily users on Facebook reached 2 billion for the first time.