Facebook To Launch Subscription Service To Help Creators Make Money

Singapore Banks Mull Facebook Access

Aiming to take on YouTube in the content market, Facebook is gearing up to launch a new subscription feature to help creators make money.

Recode reported that starting in the middle of April, the social network will launch a feature that enables followers to send money to creators monthly and get exclusive content or a badge that shows they’re a supporter. The service will cost $4.99 a month, with Facebook opting not to take a cut of the profits. However, Apple and Google, which will process transactions on their own platforms, get a 30 percent cut for all in-app purchases. As a result, creators will receive around $3.50 a month per subscription.

The idea is to encourage content creators to continue sharing their content on Facebook. Creators tend to leave a platform that doesn’t make them money and move to a place that will. Facebook wants to keep that from happening.

Even with the subscription service, content creators on Facebook won’t get the same revenue sharing they do on other media streaming sites like YouTube. Creators on YouTube can ask Google to run ads before their videos and can share with Google in the revenue from those ads. Creators get 55 percent, while YouTube gets 45 percent, noted the report. Facebook doesn’t offer any of that. This is the second time in 2018 Facebook rolled out features that enable creators to pay for content they care about. In January, the social media giant rolled out a tipping feature in Facebook Live.

The new feature at Facebook come amid outrage over yet another privacy scandal at the social media company. Late last week, news broke that Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, was able to access data on 50 million users beginning in 2014. At the time, Cambridge Analytica was employed by the Trump campaign. The consulting firm, which is conservative-leaning, gained access to data and did not delete the information. The revelation, which is yet another hit to the social media giant’s reputation, drew the outcry of politicians and consumer advocacy groups.

Facebook has faced widespread criticism that it did nothing to prevent fake news and offensive ads, many from Russians, from permeating its social media platform, which many believe impacted the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.