As Facebook says in a blog post, the social media giant is testing a new subscription feature that will allow group administrators to levy USD 4.99 to USD 29.99 a month for exclusive membership in certain groups.
In its initial phase, parenting, cooking and home cleaning groups will first get the new feature. Facebook however won't be getting any money out of the membership fee as of now.
While Facebook has always insisted that “It's free and always will be”, subscription charges always lead to fears of users giving up on the service.
Facebook’s reasoning is that administrators take a lot of time to create content and manage groups and the incentive may help them in churning out better stuff. Groups which are free will continue to exist and this is said to be a pilot project. Certain administrators will now have the option to introduce a sub-group which will be subscription based.
As per Facebook: “Subscription groups align with the experience that we made available to support video creators earlier this year, and is part of our overall approach to helping creators and leaders to financially support the work they do to engage their fans and communities.”
Currently, the feature will only be in-place on the mobile platform. It’s being seen as the start of Facebook trying to monetize groups, something the social media giant did with feeds which rely on advertising.
