Facebook ramps up paid messaging trials, offers access to celebrity inboxes for a fee - murphyconst1993

Facebook calls itself a social network, but earlier long you may need to pony up some cash to get social with people outside of your immediate circle of friends.

The service recently swollen testing of a "feature" that gives users the capability to pay to commit messages to the inboxes of celebrities and anyone other they aren't currently Friends with. The charges have been existence tested worldwide for months now, but the latest trial was rolled bent on a full 10 percentage of U.K users at the conclusion of last March, when Facebook started charging up to $17 to message the likes of Olympic swimmer Tom Daley and Snoop Dog. Average multitude and D-list celebrities privy be reached for some $1.

Facebook inboxes explained

Facebook's messaging service has deuce inboxes: The first is your principal inbox, where you see messages from people you are directly adjunctive with. But when you actually click through your Facebook inbox, you likewise see another inbox, called "Other," where messages from people you're not connected to on Facebook show up. You get into't receive any notifications about messages that land in your Other inbox.

Your second "Other" inbox is where Facebook explores an opportunity to make money. The initiative basic appeared last December, when an update to its messaging system offered a small set of U.S. users the opportunity to earnings $1 per substance in order to knock messages to strangers from the "Other" inbox—which users rarely check—to the inbox proper.

So, in January, Facebook began testing a $100 tip to message the inboxes of CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandburg, and CFO Jacques Louis David Ebersman.

A Facebook representative told U.K. newspaper The Custodial: "We are testing a number of price points in the UK and some other countries to establish the optimal fee that signals importance. This is still a prove and these prices are not set in stone." However, the various price points are "not a sliding scale leaf based on fame. You can't infer person's level of 'celebrity' from the numbers," the social meshing added.

Good for users or good for Facebook?

Spell Facebook insists that this system of rules is fashioned to prevent spam, Facebook's initiative will no doubt try controversial. In fact, by giving everyday users a way to leap out of the deport of the Different and into a stranger's main inbox, the new system of rules May very fit irritate (and alienate) celebrities.

The system may also embarras unremarkable users. The social network previously emphatic that IT want its messaging system and @facebook.com addresses to rival traditional e-mail services. But an inbox where you get messages and telling only from people you know, patc messages from outside your circles are relegated to another inbox—unless paid for—is not the future of electronic mail.

Information technology may just typify the future of Facebook, however. The now-in the public eye company has to monetize its members to keep its stockholders happy. Premium-priced inbox access fits that postulate like a mit.