- Users can pay $2 to create a 'highlighted post'
- Posts appear higher in friends' news feeds
- Latest in a series of efforts by social network giant to boost profitability
By Rob Waugh
|
Will you be my friend? Facebook is testing a ¿pay to be popular¿ option to make help users get noticed by their friends
Facebook is testing a ‘pay to be popular’ option to make help users get noticed by their friends.
The social networking giant has begun offering some users a $2 feature called ‘Highlight’ to ensure their posts are seen by more people.
It's the latest in a sequence of money-making efforts from the social-network giant in an effort to reassure investors before its flotation on the stock market.
Yesterday, Facebook unveiled an app store, where users can pay for apps for the first time.
Recent figures show only 12% of Facebook friends see an average status update.
However, Facebook’s new ‘Highlight’ feature will let users pay to have one of your posts appear to more friends.
The feature is already being tested with some users in New Zealand, with a free version also having been spotted to gauge users interest.
Facebook said: ‘We’re constantly testing new features across the site.
This particular test is si mply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends.’
Users who are in the test group and post a status update, see a ‘Highlight’ option next to the Like and comment buttons below it.
The screenshot captured by Techcrunch which shows how users can pay for their posts to be seen by more users
When clicked, they will be offered one of several price points Facebook is testing - including one charging $2 for each post.
It is believed highlighted posts may appear higher in the news feed, stay visible for longer, and appear to more friends and subscribers.
However, some experts believe the feature could simply annoy users.
‘On Facebook, what’s supposed to matter is how interesting your posts are, not how deep your wallet is,’ said Josh Constine of TechCrunch.
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Buh-bye Facebook! They're getting desperate trying to generate revenue. Facebook doesn't have a business model that will sustain it's growth, or even pay for the expenses built into the system to this point. Won't be long before they end up like MySpace. Good-riddance Facebook!!!!!!!
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Sorry...the day I have to pay is the day I say goodbye FB...seriously...who would pay any amount of money so your junk shows up higher...can you say insecure!!!
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Good bye Facebook page
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First thing i thought to myself when i saw this article was SAD - Then seen that the top comment said the exact same thing lol...
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Facebook said: ‘We’re constantly testing new features across the site. No they are constantly trying to make more money out of the site and to eventually make every user pay for the most desirable services they want to sell to the public.
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The greed of that zuckerburg kid is astonishing.
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Smacks of desperation - this company is clearly struggling to find revenue streams. It must be massively over-valued as it has nothing apart from the knowledge about it's users which it sells to other companies.
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And so the Facebook nightmare continues....feeding off all those Facebook addicts out there....
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First they make young people dependent of the damn thing and then when they're junkies they start charging. It's like a pimp and his hooker/ drug dealer and his client . Criminal really!
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Sad that people might pay money to communicate more to people that, let's face it, if they saw in the street wouldn't know how to talk face to face and with the subscribe button now they'd waste $2 as I'd unsubscribe to anyone rambling at the top of my feed persistently. I have only people on my feed i talk to and actively keep in touch with. The odd person adds me as a friend - sees how I'm doing, might say hi and then disappears again for months / years. People feel the need to be seen? Get out and be seen, don't live your life through social networks. It's only an extension of anonymous chat rooms. Get a life!
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