Will Europeans buy Meta’s ad-free Facebook and Instagram experience?
The impact of the EU’s new privacy laws didn’t take long to shake things up: Meta is now offering European users paid subscriptions to Facebook and Instagram without advertising.
The move is a response to recent hefty fines for violating EU data privacy legislation, which Meta now intends to avoid by allowing customers to choose between a subscription-based product free of ads, or one free of charge, but with advertising. This is the first time Meta has offered a premium product, but does not seem to have too many alternatives, considering that the EU will not allow it to sell its users data to advertisers any longer.
It remains to be seen how many people will be prepared to pay for Facebook and Instagram, which long ago ceased to be seen as an essential service. We can probably expect a lukewarm response to the subscription offer, with people prepared to pay for an advertising-free product, not so much because they are not bothered by the ads, but because they do not value these products enough to consider paying for them.
