According to National Report, Facebook has planned to charge its users 2.99 (approx Rs 180) per month for using the social platform, which was free till now. The fee will be implemented from November 1. The report quoted Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who addressed a press conference in California, stating that the social networking platform has rolled out their new monthly service plan.
“We thought long and hard about this decision, but at the end of the day, we had no choice but to add this monthly fee,” Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told reporters. “If we don’t do something about our rising costs now, Facebook could face an unrecoverable financial burden and become obsolete,” stated Mark.
Facebook, the largest and most used social platform on earth, has decided not to be free any more. The social media giant has planned to start charging their users with a nominal monthly fee—and it is not as cheap as you think.
Anxious? So were we! Till we found out that the report was a hoax. To make things more believable, the report also included that a Wall Street analyst, Dale Sackrider, stated it as excellent news for Facebook stock holders. He was mentioned stating that even if 70% of users accept to pay for the service, the approximately 1 billion users could bring in cash of more than $30 billion every month.
The report further continued with an interview to CNN, where a Facebook spokesperson, Paul Horner, explains the reason for the monthly fee. He stated that the economic times are tight and the ads on the Facebook platform are not profitable as they had planned. Facebook is also facing an increase in costs, since more and more people are joining Facebook every day. He also stated that there are so many pictures of cats, apart from regular pics, and storing the images is an increasing cost to the company.
Facebook seems to have gotten us totally addicted. With Facebook updates when we wake up to FB chats before we sleep, communicating with the world for news, updates and relations, the social platform has embedded into our daily lives. With the news about Facebook charging its users a monthly fee, many panicked to a great extent. People would not be able to pay up for the charges. Rs 180 per month adds up to a whopping Rs 2160 every year, as compared to a miniscule Rs 55 per year on what WhatsApp demands. If the free-to-use social networking platform implements a fee, it would also have a drastic affect on businesses that use it to promote their stuff. So relax, and sit back, Facebook is not going to charge its users any amount.
