1 November, 2023

Meta Launches Verified For Business In Australia & Ad-Free Subscription In Europe

Meta has announced that it is launching a test of its Verified for Business notices in Australia.

In exchange for a $45.99 per month fee, businesses will get a verified badge confirming that the business is validated and authentic, as well as “proactive impersonation monitoring” to stop scammers trying to spoof users.

Plus, businesses will get access to support and help troubleshoot account issues.

Perhaps of greatest importance, however, is that Verified businesses will get New ways to be discovered on Meta’s platforms. For example, they will be included at or near the top of search results and as a recommended verified business to follow in the feed.

“We’ve been hearing from businesses that they’re eager to build more credibility and get greater visibility, so we’re excited to start rolling out Meta Verified for businesses in Australia, which will help people know that the businesses they’re engaging with are validated and authentic. We’ll continue to evolve what’s included in the subscriber toolkit to make sure we’re bringing the best value to businesses,” said Harry Lowes, head of SMB, Meta ANZ.

There are some striking similarities between Meta’s new Verified for Business labels and those introduced by Twitter under Elon Musk’s direction. However, a Meta spokesperson told B&T that these similarities were entirely coincidental.

“Subscription-based models have been adopted and seen success across our industry and many others, not just with Twitter (Discord, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snap, etc),” they explained.

“We’ve been pleased with the growth of our initial creator bundle and are confident in the value we are already bringing to our community with a subscription offering. We think our expansion to businesses will bring a unique value to the market, initially focused on helping small businesses access new ways to stand out and build confidence with customers on our apps – at a competitive price point”.

Yesterday, Meta also announced that would be launching a subscription plan in Europe that would remove ads across its Facebook and Instagram platforms. The changes were introduced to comply with new European regulations and apply in the EU, European Economic Area and Switzerland.

The subscription will cost €9.99 per month ($16.64) on the web or €12.99 per month ($21.64) on iOS and Android. Regardless of where a user purchases the subscription, it will be applied across all their devices. However, in March an additional fee of €6 per month ($10) on the web and €8 per month ($13.33) on iOS and Android will apply for each additional user account.

Meta’s said its introduction of the subscription — essentially opting out of targeted online advertising — balances the requirements of European regulators while giving users choice and allowing the company to continue serving users in the EU, EEA and Switzerland.

However, it appears that Meta is not especially confident in being able to recoup its losses from not being able to serve targeted ads to users. In its most recent earnings, the company’s CFO, Susan Li, wrote: “In addition, we continue to monitor the active regulatory landscape, including the increasing legal and regulatory headwinds in the EU and the US that could significantly impact our business and our financial results”.

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