Member Article

Facebook begin paid messaging experiment

Facebook will trial a new paid-for messaging service which allows users to connect with other users who are not their ‘friends.’

A trial number of users can pay $1 to message the inbox of others, not the “other” folder into which unsolicited mail would normally fall.

Users can receive one paid-for message per week, and the trial is taking place in the US.

A statement from Facebook read: “We’re starting a small experiment to test the usefulness of economic signals to determine relevance. This test will give a small number of people the option to pay to have a message routed to the Inbox rather than the Other folder of a recipient that they are not connected with.

“Several commentators and researchers have noted that imposing a financial cost on the sender may be the most effective way to discourage unwanted messages and facilitate delivery of messages that are relevant and useful.”

The test is the first step towards monetizing one of Facebook’s principal features

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .