Facebook tests charging $100 for messages to users you don't know
One of the reasons for the great Facebook IPO flop of 2012 was investors' fears that the social network couldn't monetize its user base.
What good is a billion members, the thinking went, if you can't get a buck from them? Ad revenue can only go so far.
So Facebook has done some experimenting, and late last year, under much of the media radar, the social network unveiled a modest way to pry money from its users: charging $1 to private message anyone that wasn't on your friend list.
At the time, nobody noticed a $1 fee for a service they'd rarely use, but what will people say if that charge is boosted up to $100 per message?
According to Mashable, that's just what's happened on Facebook for some users.
*Bing: Facebook scams you should never fall for
Should you try to message, say, Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook, if you're not one of his 16 million followers you might see a dialogue box prompting you to pay $100 for it to be delivered to his inbox.
Otherwise, you can send it to his "Other" folder, a oft-overlooked inbox storage device usually saved for junk mail and other non-urgent messages.
Said Facebook in a statement: "We are testing some extreme price points to see what works to filter spam."
For now, that appears to be the chief motivation here -- to shield the inboxes of high-profile users from pestering and spam from people they don't know.
But if it expands to a system like one you might find on a dating website, where you'd have to have a special membership or pay extra to message someone not in your network, the long-rumoured up-charging of Facebook could finally be here.
Posted by: Olly | Jan 12, 2022 6:03:11 AM
Goodbye to facebook then. Its the ability to message unknown people that makes it interesting. Only an idiot would pay this.
Posted by: laughingoutloud | Jan 12, 2022 7:57:52 AM
Can we get rid of Facebook now and go back to face-to-face please?
Posted by: binderdundat | Jan 12, 2022 9:16:29 AM
FB is grasping for straws, they have no business.
Posted by: Ron Elliott | Jan 12, 2022 12:22:24 PM
If that happens, they'll have to change the name to 'facebuck'. : O
Posted by: Rose | Jan 12, 2022 1:38:49 PM
defeats the whole purpose of WHY Facebook came about. The idea initially was even no ads! If they charge $0.25 even they'd make tons of money. IF they charged everyone only $1 to use facebook for the year they would also make 1 billion a year. That way way more reasonable. Facecrack will always be facecrack. I will never get messaged my my fans if they have to pay to write to me.
Posted by: Matt Rossey | Jan 12, 2022 5:31:17 PM
And then that would be the end of Facebook for most people. Pretty stupid thing to do unless they are looking to go the way of MySpace.
Posted by: Steve M | Jan 13, 2022 1:31:01 PM
"One of the reasons for the great Facebook IPO flop of 2012 was investors' fears that the social network couldn't monetize its user base."
That's not really true at all. Facebook has already been monetized and has been for a long time. It generated about $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011. No investor questions it's ability to generate money. The only reason the IPO "flopped" is because the equity was priced unreasonably high by underwriters and investors weren't willing to pay $38/share.
Posted by: Will | Jan 14, 2022 6:09:57 AM
I dumped face book long before it become the grand nuisance it is now..security reasons alone made it a dumb bet..billions of dollars..ya..ok..just another money pig screwing sheep..the net is so dumbed down and time wasting it is about time to dump that too..I have an idea for a whole new way of communicating via the ..........censored.....top secret....worth trillions..get the plan for 250 billion cash now :)
Posted by: wayne | Jan 14, 2022 7:31:08 AM
Facebook is for people with no life snooping to see who else does not have a life.Shut the computer off, go outside and talk to someone face to face.You get exercise and confidance in one shot!!!
Posted by: jim | Jan 14, 2022 8:24:27 AM
i'm sure if fb starts to charge, that someone is already starting to make another socail site for all to use. It is the way of the people. There be nothing to fear...