Facebook soon to charge users for reading articles

Facebook recently declared that from next month the users will see ads on their Facebook Messenger that will allow the company to generate revenue. The company is also working on a way to charge the readers who read articles on Facebook.

Expected to launch this policy and the new system by October, Facebook aims to provide a new technique to raise the revenues of various media companies. However, initially it will only be for testing purposes.

The social media site considered to take this action after hearing complaints from various publishers. The publishers raised the issue that they lose revenue and control over their stories as Facebook shared their stories for free.

As per TheStreet, “A paywall is under construction in Facebook’s Instant Articles section where the social network has agreements with select outlets to publish directly to the platform.” (Facebook Instant Articles allows users to read articles on Facebook for free).

Campbell Brown, Facebook’s head of news partnerships, informed that the reformed feature will bound the number of stories in its “Instant Articles” segment. The user would only be permitted to read maximum 10 articles from the same publisher. If the user wishes to read more stories from the same publisher, the user would have to pay for it.

“One of the things we heard in our initial meetings from many newspapers and digital publishers is that 'we want a subscription product -- we want to be able to see a paywall in Facebook'. And that is something we're doing now. We are launching a subscription product,” exclaimed Brown.

CNET reported that if the payment process works out for the publishers, the program is likely to expand by 2018.

Brown expressed, “As part of the Facebook Journalism Project, we are taking the time to work closely together with our partners and understand their needs.”

Moreover, apart from this system, Facebook is recently testing a drone in order to provide internet access all over the globe that makes over 4 billion people. Named Aquila, the drone is a solar-powered drone and weighs about 1,000 pounds, reports TechJuice.