DURBAN - Facebook has began a pilot programme that will allow Facebook group administrators charge people for membership to certain groups.
The subscription fee will cost between $4,99 and $29,99 a month for membership to exclusive groups.
The new feature will be tested on parenting, cooking and home cleaning groups. In a statement from their blog, Facebook said that they get feedback from group admins that they are looking for ways to help them earn money to deepen engagement with their members and support their communities.
Currently, free groups are untouched but soon they will have the option to start premium sub-groups. For example, Sarah Mueller's lifestyle blog Declutter My Home is launching an Organise My Home group that will cost $14,99 a month to join.
The Grown and Flown Parents group is creating a college admissions group that will cost $29,99 for access to college counsellors. Facebook said that group admins could use the money that they make to create higher-quality content for their groups.
Presently, the feature is still in its testing phase and the social networking company will be not be getting a cut of the subscription fees. As a part of Standard App Store and Play Store policies, Apple and Google will be getting a percentage of user subscription fees.
New Facebook Live features
Just recently Facebook announced new live video features. The new features are in line with the social media company starting their own game show. The new Facebook live features include quizzes, polls, challenges and gamification that will allow users to turn their live streams into a game show.