American multinational Investment bank and Financial Services holding company, Bank of America (BofA) has revealed that Meta’s new verified subscription service could attract 12 million new subscribers in 2024.
Analysts at the bank disclosed that Meta’s new paid certification service feature will offer huge visibility to influencers and content creators, noting that it will spur businesses to sign up on the platform.
The feature has been described as attractive to influencers because it is believed to help them gain wider audience reach due to the badge that will possibly give them a higher positioning in search and content results.
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The bank believes that Meta’s new feature could be a huge money-maker as they predict that paid subscribers could bring as much as $1.7 billion in revenue in 2024.
BoFA research note said, “Given a broader audience reach and bigger revenue opportunity for creators, we believe Meta could outperform the subscriber ramp (as a percent of users) of peer subscription offerings (the service will likely be refined and improved over time)”.
According to a principal analyst Jasmine Enberg, she disclosed that the increased reach and visibility that comes with Meta’s verification service is the real news. In her words, “I expect Meta Verified’s impact on Meta’s revenue will be minimal. But by increasing subscriber reach and visibility, Meta could attract up and coming creators, many of whom have had trouble building audiences on Instagram.”
Also reacting to Meta’s rollout of a paid subscription service, Twitter CEO Elon Musk responded by tweeting “Inevitable” to a tweet that disclosed that Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg copied the microblogging platform verification payment feature.
Inevitable
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 19, 2023
Meta’s new subscription service is coming months after Twitter’s CEO Elon Musk rolled out Twitter’s Blue subscription service in December, which costs $8 a month for web users and $11 a month for people who purchase it via Apple App’s Store. Reports reveal that the service currently has nearly 300,000 worldwide subscribers.
Recall that two days ago, tech giant company Meta, rolled out a paid verification service for Instagram and Facebook. Following its launch, the company CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Instagram account, “This week we’re starting to roll out Meta Verified—a subscription service that lets you verify your account with a government ID. This new feature is about increasing authenticity and security across our services.”
The blue verification badge will cost $11.99 or $14.99 monthly. Meta Verified” accounts will be made available to users in Australia and New Zealand later this week before expanding to other countries as part of a testing program, the company said in a separate statement.
To be able to receive the blue badge, users will verify their account with a government ID before receiving it. These badge holders will receive extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be them and get direct access to customer support.
Users will only be able to purchase a subscription for Instagram or Facebook, and not on both platforms at once, although Meta intends to allow users to purchase both within one subscription in the future.
The company further disclosed that it won’t make any changes to Instagram or Facebook accounts that are already verified based on prior requirements, though it suggested that this could change once the testing period is complete.