Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has introduced a subscription service called Meta Verified, allowing users to verify their identity and receive the coveted blue check mark on their Instagram and Facebook accounts.
Users can subscribe for up to $15 per month to access the service, which is initially available in New Zealand and Australia.
The service verifies users’ identities using government-issued ID cards and also offers increased visibility and protection against impersonation. The company plans to expand the service to additional countries soon, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The move to subscription services has been gaining popularity among social media firms, with Snap and Twitter both offering their own subscription services. Meta has suffered revenue losses following changes to Apple’s privacy policy that restrict its ability to track users’ internet activities.
Meta’s revenue comes primarily from advertising, and it expects to lose over $10 billion in ads revenue in 2022. The company hopes to develop a subscription offering that is beneficial to creators, businesses, and its community, according to a blog post.
Musk, who acquired Twitter last year, has revamped the platform’s subscription service, Twitter Blue, offering a range of additional features, including the blue check mark. Twitter has expanded Twitter Blue to over a dozen markets in recent months, but as of mid-January, only about 180,000 accounts had signed up for the service.