According to the Wall Street Journal, social media giant Meta may begin charging its European customers roughly $14 per month for an ad-free membership to Instagram and Facebook.
Meta is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Although it is not controlled by a single person or organization, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg still owns and controls the majority of it.
Meta, previously known as Facebook, is a social technology company.
Meta is a publicly listed business that owns and administers the social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Meta in 2021. The word Meta alludes to the metaverse, a virtual realm where people may interact utilizing augmented reality, virtual reality, and cryptocurrencies. Meta intends to construct the metaverse during the next 10-15 years.
Meta’s primary goal is to bring the metaverse to life. The metaverse is a shared online 3D virtual place that several businesses want to build as a future version of the internet.
According to the story, Meta executives have discussed the concept with Irish privacy authorities, digital competition regulators in Brussels, and EU privacy regulators.
Meta was also given the ‘gatekeepers’ designation under the EU’s new Digital Markets Act last month. In addition to imposing additional limits, the legislation prohibits firms from combining the personal data of consumers across their various services. The EU has been working on stronger regulation of big tech to safeguard European users online and stimulate competition in the sector dominated by US behemoths.
According to the WSJ, Meta intends to charge European customers roughly 10 euros ($10.46) per month for a desktop subscription to Facebook or Instagram, with an extra $6 euro fee for each subsequent account.
Furthermore, since Meta would include fees imposed by Apple’s and Google’s app stores on in-app payments, the membership price for mobile devices would rise to about 13 euros per month.
Meta has informed authorities that it intends to launch the subscription no ads (SNA) plan for European customers in the next months, providing consumers the option of continuing to use Facebook and Instagram with personalized adverts or paying for their services without any ads. However, it is unclear if authorities in Ireland or Belgium would deem Meta’s new SNA plan consistent with EU standards, according to the publication.
According to a Meta representative, the firm believes in free services financed by personalized adverts but is open to investigating solutions to deal with “evolving regulatory requirements.”
