After a few months of testing, Meta has confirmed that it’s rolling out new add-on subscriptions for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as the company looks to increase its subscription revenue.
As outlined by Naomi Gleit, Meta’s head of product, Meta’s new Plus products will provide a range of exclusive add-ons for paying users of each app.
Instagram Plus, for example, which was spotted in testing in March, will give users the chance to pay $3.99 per month for additional features including Stories insights, new Superlike animations and the ability to extend the life of a Story beyond 24 hours.
WhatsApp Plus, which was spotted in testing in April, offers additional features such as new stickers, app themes and premium ringtones for $2.99 per month.
Meta said that more features will be added in future, but essentially, each Meta app will get its own iteration of a subscription service similar to Snapchat Plus or X Premium, with add-on elements that Meta hopes will entice subscriber interest.
These offerings will be in addition to Meta Verified, the company’s existing subscription program, which is more focused on creators and offers elements such as impersonation protection and access to Meta support.
Meta Verified was launched in 2023, following Elon Musk’s announcement of new subscription packages at X. Clearly, Meta has since seen enough take-up of Meta Verified to drive further expansion of its subscription offerings.
Meta hasn’t shared any official data on Meta Verified take-up, but looking at Meta’s quarterly performance updates, it seems that, potentially, around 35 million Facebook and IG users may have signed up to Meta Verified thus far, generating an additional $2 billion or so in revenue for the company each year.
Again, there are no exact figures on this, because Meta hasn’t released them. But it’s safe to assume that Meta Verified is making a lot of money, which is why the company is looking to expand its subscription packages.
At the same time, Meta is looking to provide more features for creators and business users, including new subscriptions for its artificial intelligence tools.
As reported by TechCrunch, Meta is now testing two new AI-focused plans with Meta One Plus for $7.99 per month, and Meta One Premium for $19.99 per month.
Gelt said that Meta’s new AI subscriptions will provide more capacity for “bigger more complex requests” from Meta AI, while the Meta One banner will become the central focus for its subscriptions, incorporating all of its paid add-on offerings.
To be clear, Meta AI will remain free for regular users, as will access to Meta’s apps. But for those looking to do more, there will be new options to pay for add-on tools to either enhance the experience, or buy more compute and processing capacity for AI projects.
Does that mean that, eventually, all of Meta’s various offerings will switch to paid models?
That still seems unlikely, because while Meta is generating billions of dollars from subscriptions, it’s generating many more billions from ads, which contribute around 98% of its overall intake.
Meta’s ad business is based on reach, and forcing all users to pay would be a risk in this respect.
More likely, then, these new packages will give Meta another income stream, while also providing some sign of how the company plans to monetize its AI projects.
Meta is investing hundreds of billions of dollars into AI development, but as yet, it hasn’t provided a clear path to monetization into order offset its rising costs.
This is becoming more of a challenge for all AI projects, with the massive outlay required for AI infrastructure meaning that there needs to be a subsequent significant income stream in order to justify ongoing spend.
Meta said its new AI plans will begin testing next month, initially in Singapore, Guatemala and Bolivia. The company is also testing alternate subscription packages in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Thailand and Bangladesh.
