Facebook is the biggest social media platform worldwide. Its user base exceeds one billion and has an exponential growth rate to go with the existing figure. One of the main features of Facebook is its groups, which have been free until now.
Facebook has launched a new feature – Subscription Groups. This feature has been launched to cater to the requests of existing group admins, who consistently asked for a methodology for them to be paid drawn up. Facebook notes that some group admins have been doing this in the past too, i.e. creating a sub-group within the existing group and keeping membership exclusive to users who pay through third-party services. Keeping this in mind, Subscription Groups have been introduced in order to integrate the payment stage and grant access to exclusive content within the existing group.
Facebook has commented, “We know that admins invest their time and energy to maintain their groups, and some have told us that they would like tools to help them continue to invest in their community and offer more to members.” It is an undisputable fact that group admins have to put in a lot of time into their groups and not compensating them accordingly is unfair to them. After all, it’s not just the time that is going into the groups, it’s their effort as well. Maintaining full-fledged communities, keeping them active and interactive among a host of other things require a lot of power.
Subscriptions groups are likely to have a huge hand in helping group admins and content curators put in specialized effort into catering their paid subscribers. Moreover, the payment platform also helps in saving admins time so that they can dedicate longer periods into the content they create. Users can sign up for subscription groups from their Facebook apps on Android and iOS.
Subscriptions groups have only been made available to a small number of groups initially. Flown and Grown Parents, which have created a sub-group called College Admissions and Affordability. They are charging $29.99/month and will give access to college counselors to students and parents.
Declutter My Home, run by Sarah Mueller is starting a subgroup called Organize My Home, which will charge a $14.99 subscription fee per month. Users will get access to exclusive videos, live Q&A sessions along with weekly challenges etc. to help them tidy up their homes and apartments.
This isn’t the first time Facebook has done something to support content creators. Video creators were granted the ability to charge viewers in exchange for exclusive content. Furthermore, users were given a special badge that shows they’re a paid subscriber as well.
