Soon, Facebook will allow group admins to charge members for exclusive content

Facebook will soon allow group admins to charge its members USD 4.99 to USD 29.99 per month for membership into special groups with exclusive content. The programme will be rolled out on a pilot basis and will be limited to parenting, cooking and home cleaning private groups initially, before a full-fledged rollout.

"Today, we're piloting subscriptions with a small number of groups to continue to support group admins who lead these communities," Alex Deve, Product Director, Groups at Facebook, said in a blog post on Wednesday.
Facebook has decided not to charge any fees during the pilot phase. However, admins will have to pay the subscription fees towards iOS and Android operating systems.

Facebook may however decide to start charging for the services in the future, which will open up a huge source of revenue as the service is used by more than 1 billion users across the world.

However, Facebook claims the idea actually originated from admins who wanted to engage with their group members at a deeper level and thereby help generate income.

“We hear from group admins that they’re looking for ways to help them earn money to deepen engagement with their members and continue to support their communities,” Deve said.

Though free groups will still remain free, introduction of subscription groups is expected to bring higher-quality and group-focussed content which will result in improved user experience on the platform.

Subscription groups also align with the experience that Facebook made available to support video creators earlier this year. “This is part of our overall approach to helping creators and leaders to financially support the work they do to engage their fans and communities,” the blog post said.

For example, Facebook user Sarah Mueller started a group called ‘Declutter My Home’, which aims to ‘inspire and motivate others to tidy up their apartment or house’. The group quickly gained recognition and thousands of people who wished to reduce clutter in their spaces joined the group.

“Since I started Declutter My Home, it’s been motivating and fulfilling to help others get on the path of clearing their homes of unnecessary clutter, and creating a safe and supportive space for people to come together around this common goal,” said Mueller.

Motivated by the response, she started another group ‘Organize My Home’, in which users will have access to easily actionable checklists, tutorials, live videos and more to help with home organization.

“With the new Organize My Home subscription group, I will be able to provide this new community with more interactive ways to having an organized home like mini-projects, group challenges, trainings, and live Q&A, while still keeping the original group as a robust community for getting free advice and motivation.”