Social media giant Facebook on June 20 introduced a subscription feature that would allow group administrators to charge members for exclusive content. Currently, the subscription groups feature is being tested with a small number of groups across a range of interests. Based on initial feedback from these groups, the company will improve the experience before rolling it out for others.
“We hear from group admins that they are looking for ways to help them earn money to deepen engagement with their members and continue to support their communities. Many admins do this today by creating an additional subscribers-only group that sits alongside their existing group, and rely on additional tools to track and collect payments. Subscription groups were created to make it easier for admins to provide these experiences with built-in tools, and to save them time so they can focus on offering members-only content. For members, they are now able to sign-up and manage their subscription through the Facebook app for iOS and Android,” said the company in a statement.
Earlier this year, Facebook introduced monetisation feature for video creators. The subscription groups feature is also designed on similar lines to help creators and leaders financially support the work they do to engage their fans and communities.
In May, Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp also introduced similar feature in beta update that aimed to provide more control to group admins over content shared within groups, along with control over group members. However, unlike Facebook Subscription groups, WhatsApp did not specify any monetary benefit to group admins.