• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Meta wants users to pay $17 per month to remove ads on Facebook and Instagram

winjer

Gold Member

Would you pay a monthly fee to use Facebook and Instagram without the ads? Some users may soon have the opportunity to do just that. Meta recently pitched a plan to European regulators that would allow Instagram users to pay around $14 per month for an ad-free IG experience on mobile, or about $17 per month to include Facebook in the bundle.

The initiative, dubbed subscription no ads, or SNA for short, could start rolling out in selection European nations within the coming months, sources familiar with the proposal told The Wall Street Journal.

The publication said the proposal is an answer by Meta to European Union rules that would limit the company's ability to show users targeted ads based on data collected without their consent. Ad revenue is Meta's bread and butter, so anything that challenges that will most certainly be addressed, one way or another.

Once implemented, the change would give users in select regions the option to continue using Facebook and Instagram for free with personalized ads, or pay to unlock a version without any ads (and presumably, limited personal data collection). Access to ad-free services would be more expensive for mobile users, sources said, because Meta would have to account for commissions charged by Apple and Google app stores for in-app payments.

It is worth reiterating that Meta's proposal is limited to the European Union to appease regulators. If you are in the US or elsewhere, don't expect to see Facebook or Instagram premium subscription offerings anytime soon.

There is also no guarantee at this stage that regulators will accept Meta's proposal as presented. They very well could insist the company reduce its proposed pricing or make them offer a free version with ads that aren't based on user activity.

Walking Glancing GIF
 

LordOfChaos

Member
Would it also remove the annoying engagement driving shit they do with the onslaught of notifications on shit you haven't interacted with? I've turned off so many page and friend notifications, they keep making up new shit to get you back in
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
Definitely not for me, but I wonder if these services are trying to exploit their most committed users or if the business model is running out of steam.

There's a sneaking suspicion that services like this will just make the experience worse and worse with embedded ads that break up the flow of conversation or animate smoothly across menus, etc. And will get so bad that people will just pay up.

I can well imagine operating costs for Instagram are significant and could rise with various legal obligations, but $17 surely can't be a mass market proposal. This has to be for the whales.
 

Toons

Member
Already have been desensitized to ads and can deal with them. If you asked me to pay like a dollar id do it, and they'd still make a ton of money off that. But ya gotta be greedy.
 

Heimdall_Xtreme

Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
The good thing is that I never use Facebook... Mark already did enough damage to the world by creating this website, is he doing it even worse?
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
Why don’t people Just stop using all of these things? I don’t understand people’s need to share useless shit about themselves with people who don’t really care.
Because people are narcissists by nature, being brought up by their helicopter parents into thinking they are special and important.
 

Trunx81

Member
haha, this is really getting out of hand.

In other news: Does anyone have a BlueSky invitation code for me? ;)
 

Romulus

Member
They would probably make a ton of money making this $4 or something comparatively reasonable. Even though I wouldn't pay anything.
 
Last edited:

navii

My fantasy is that my girlfriend was actually a young high school girl.
I think NeoGaf Gold should be $17 per month.
 

Drew1440

Member
Is this because of some new EU privacy legislation that came into effect, or did Apple limit their apps ability to data mine?
 

thefool

Member
I absolutely love seeing lewd fitness accounts on instagram, but pics of women showing their sweaty ass isn't really worth 17$ per month.
 

FeralEcho

Member
You wouldnt get me on Facebook if YOU paid me 17 dollars let alone asking me to shell out the money for your shitty braindead social media apps.
 

MayauMiao

Member
I support!

The more ads Meta spams on Facebook for non paying users, the more likely users will stop using the platform.
 
Top Bottom