Aiming to explore more options to monetise its products, Meta is working to bring “possible paid features” to social networking services Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, according to a report by The Verge. This comes after Meta's ad business was severely hurt by Apple iOS privacy changes on Apple App Store and falling revenue from its ad business.
The company has not elaborated on the paid features it is mulling to introduce across Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Meta's new group would be named "New Monetisation Experiences" and it would be headed by Meta's former head of research, Pratiti Raychoudhury, the report added.
Meta’s VP of monetization overseeing the group, John Hegeman was quoted as saying in an interview with The Verge that Meta is still committed to growing its ads business and that it had no plans to let people pay to turn off ads in its apps. “I think we do see opportunities to build new types of products, features, and experiences that people would be willing to pay for and be excited to pay for,” he said.
Meanwhile, earlier in July, Meta Platforms clocked its first-ever quarterly decline in revenue, Reuters had reported. According to the report, the fall in revenue was triggered because of recession fears and competitive pressures, weighing on its digital ads sales. Meta shares were down about 4.6 per cent in extended trading.
The California-based firm said it anticipates revenue in third quarter to fall to $26 billion-$28.5 billion, which would make it a second year-on-year (YoY) drop in a row. However, analysts were expecting a revenue fall of $30.52 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Meta, which operates the world's largest social media platform, clocked mixed results for user growth. Monthly active users on Facebook came in slightly under analyst expectations at 293 crore in the second quarter, an increase of 1 per cent YoY, while daily active users handily beat estimates at 197 crore.