文章來(lái)源：Feb 25th 2023 期 Business 欄目 Social media

“It’s free and always will be,” Facebook vowed on its landing page for nearly a decade. The world’s largest social network still is. But from this week its users and those of its sister app, Instagram, will have the option of paying $11.99 a month for a “verified” account, buying them better customer service, more widely distributed posts and a blue badge next to their name.

“它是免費(fèi)的，而且永遠(yuǎn)都是免費(fèi)的，”Facebook近十年來(lái)一直在其登錄頁(yè)面上這樣宣稱(chēng)。目前，facebook仍是全球最大的社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)。但從本周開(kāi)始，facebook及其姐妹應(yīng)用Instagram的用戶(hù)可以選擇每月支付11.99美元，獲得一個(gè)“經(jīng)過(guò)驗(yàn)證”的賬戶(hù)，從而獲得更好的客戶(hù)服務(wù)、更廣泛傳播的帖子以及名字旁邊的藍(lán)色徽章。

The subscription is the latest example of a growing trend. Last June Snapchat, a messaging app popular among 20-somethings, launched a $3.99 plan called Snapchat+. In December Twitter relaunched Twitter Blue, an $8-per-month service. Like Meta’s offering, both offer an assortment of perks, the most significant being a more prominent place for the user’s posts in the feeds of others.

訂閱是增長(zhǎng)趨勢(shì)的最新例證。去年6月，在20多歲年輕人中很受歡迎的即時(shí)通訊應(yīng)用Snapchat推出了3.99美元的計(jì)劃，名為Snapchat+。去年12月，Twitter重新推出了每月8美元的Twitter Blue服務(wù)。和Meta的服務(wù)一樣，這兩家公司都提供了各種各樣的福利，最重要的是，用戶(hù)的帖子會(huì)在其他人的feed流中占據(jù)更顯眼的位置。

It is hardly surprising that ad-supported networks are looking to diversify their sources of revenue. After years of non-stop growth the online-advertising business has hit a speed bump. The great one-off shift of ad budgets from offline locations, like newspapers, to the web is mostly complete. And since 2021 mobile advertising has been hampered by anti-tracking rules pioneered by Apple, which make it harder for apps like Facebook to target ads and measure their effectiveness.

靠廣告支撐的網(wǎng)絡(luò)正在尋求多樣化的收入來(lái)源，這并不令人驚訝。經(jīng)過(guò)多年不間斷的增長(zhǎng)，在線廣告業(yè)務(wù)遇到了減速帶。廣告預(yù)算從報(bào)紙等線下場(chǎng)所一次性大規(guī)模轉(zhuǎn)移到網(wǎng)絡(luò)上的過(guò)程已經(jīng)基本完成。自2021年以來(lái)，移動(dòng)廣告一直受到蘋(píng)果首創(chuàng)的反跟蹤規(guī)則的阻礙，這使得臉書(shū)等應(yīng)用更難命中廣告并衡量其有效性。

The results have been painful. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has reported falling revenue in each of the past three quarters. Despite a recent rally its stock is trading at less than half the value at its peak in 2021. Snap, which owns Snapchat, has lost nearly 90% of its market value in the same period. Twitter, which was bought last October by Elon Musk, a mercurial self-styled “technoking”, is “trending to breakeven” having previously faced bankruptcy, its owner tweeted this month.

結(jié)果是痛苦的。Facebook的母公司Meta在過(guò)去三個(gè)季度的收入都在下降。盡管最近出現(xiàn)反彈，但其股價(jià)仍不到2021年峰值的一半。Snapchat的母公司Snap在同一時(shí)期蒸發(fā)了近90%的市值。Twitter于去年10月被自詡為“電音之王”的善變的埃隆·馬斯克收購(gòu)，其所有者本月在推特上寫(xiě)道，該公司此前曾面臨破產(chǎn)，目前正“趨于收支平衡”。

Subscriptions are no substitute for ads. Snap said on February 17th that 2.5m people had signed up to Snapchat+, less than 1% of its app’s 375m daily users. That implies annual subscription sales of no more than $120m, or less than 3% of Snap’s total revenue last year. Though Twitter has not said how many have joined Blue (its entire press office seems to have been sacked), a recent leak put the figure at below 300,000. The product remains a work in progress, with promised features such as fewer ads still billed as “coming soon”. On February 17th Twitter adopted a new approach to driving sign-ups, announcing that two-factor authentication by text message, a security feature, would shortly be turned off for those who don’t cough up.

日前推特方面宣布，自3月20日開(kāi)始，將不再支持用戶(hù)基于短信的雙重因素身份驗(yàn)證（2FA）方式，僅購(gòu)買(mǎi)了“推特藍(lán)”（Twitter Blue）訂閱服務(wù)的用戶(hù)才可繼續(xù)使用。

據(jù)悉，雙重因素身份驗(yàn)證被用來(lái)確保用戶(hù)的賬戶(hù)安全，用戶(hù)不僅需要輸入密碼，還要輸入代碼或使用安全密鑰來(lái)進(jìn)行進(jìn)一步驗(yàn)證，以確保只有用戶(hù)本人才可以訪問(wèn)賬戶(hù)。目前，推特方面提供了三種2FA方式，其中包括短信、身份驗(yàn)證應(yīng)用程序和安全密鑰。

訂閱并不能替代廣告。Snap在2月17日表示，已有250萬(wàn)人注冊(cè)了Snapchat+，不到其3.75億日用戶(hù)的1%。這意味著年訂閱銷(xiāo)售額不超過(guò)1.2億美元，不到Snap去年總收入的3%。盡管推特沒(méi)有透露有多少人加入了Blue(它的整個(gè)新聞辦公室似乎都被解雇了)，但最近泄露的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，這個(gè)數(shù)字低于30萬(wàn)。這款產(chǎn)品仍在開(kāi)發(fā)中，承諾的功能包括減少?gòu)V告數(shù)量，并宣稱(chēng)“很快就會(huì)推出”。2月17日，推特采取了一種新的方法來(lái)推動(dòng)注冊(cè)，它宣布對(duì)于那些不付費(fèi)的用戶(hù)，短信雙重身份驗(yàn)證(一種安全功能)將很快被關(guān)閉。

Meta says its offering is aimed at “creators”, who use its platforms for work and might be most willing to pay for verification and extra reach. Whereas “Elon has a plan for everyone to buy Twitter Blue (but has yet to give good reasons why), for Meta it is about a scalable way to prevent impersonation of businesses [and] celebs,” suggests Benedict Evans, a tech analyst. Rob Leathern, a former Facebook executive, rejects the idea that the plan is a copy of Snap’s and Twitter’s efforts: Facebook has been working on verification for years, he says, citing its acquisition in 2018 of Confirm.io, a biometric-ID startup.

Meta表示，其產(chǎn)品針對(duì)的是“創(chuàng)作者”，這些人使用其平臺(tái)進(jìn)行工作，可能最愿意為認(rèn)證和額外覆蓋面付費(fèi)?？萍挤治鰩煴灸岬峡颂?埃文斯表示:“埃隆計(jì)劃讓每個(gè)人都購(gòu)買(mǎi)Twitter Blue(但他還沒(méi)有給出充分的理由)，而對(duì)Meta來(lái)說(shuō)，這是一種可擴(kuò)展的方式，可以防止模仿企業(yè)和名人?！盕acebook前高管羅布·利森否認(rèn)該計(jì)劃是Snap和Twitter嘗試的翻版: 他說(shuō)，F(xiàn)acebook多年來(lái)一直致力于認(rèn)證，并以2018年收購(gòu)Confirm.io為例。Confirm.io是一家生物識(shí)別技術(shù)初創(chuàng)公司。

To the extent that social networks embrace subscription it will mean a windfall for the mobile platforms that host their apps. Google, which runs the Android operating system, and Apple, which runs iOS, make no money from apps’ advertising revenue, but take a cut of consumers’ in-app purchases, including recurring subscriptions. Having whacked the mobile ad business with new privacy rules, Apple and Google stand to profit from the resulting move to subscriptions.

從某種程度上說(shuō)，社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)接受訂閱，這將意味著承載其應(yīng)用程序的移動(dòng)平臺(tái)會(huì)有意外之財(cái)。運(yùn)行安卓操作系統(tǒng)的谷歌和運(yùn)行iOS的蘋(píng)果都不從應(yīng)用的廣告收入中獲利，而是從消費(fèi)者的應(yīng)用內(nèi)購(gòu)買(mǎi)(包括定期訂閱)中抽成。蘋(píng)果和谷歌在用新的隱私規(guī)定打擊了移動(dòng)廣告業(yè)務(wù)后，有望從由此帶來(lái)的向訂閱的轉(zhuǎn)變中獲利。

There may be a sting in the tail. Whereas Meta’s new service costs $11.99 for those signing up on the web, the price if paying via the app is $14.99. Similarly, Mr Musk, who has called Apple’s fees “a 30% tax on the internet”, charges $8 for Twitter Blue online and $11 in app. Such two-tier pricing has proved controversial, with Apple blocking apps such as Fortnite, a video game which told users they could pay less in a browser. But as more large companies embrace differential pricing, consumers may learn that they can get a big discount by signing up outside Apple and Google’s ecosystems.

這可能會(huì)帶來(lái)麻煩。Meta的新服務(wù)在網(wǎng)上注冊(cè)的價(jià)格為11.99美元，而通過(guò)應(yīng)用程序支付的價(jià)格為14.99美元。同樣，曾將蘋(píng)果的收費(fèi)稱(chēng)為“對(duì)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)征收30%的稅”的馬斯克，對(duì)Twitter Blue在線收費(fèi)8美元，對(duì)應(yīng)用收費(fèi)11美元。事實(shí)證明，這種雙重定價(jià)頗具爭(zhēng)議，蘋(píng)果屏蔽了《堡壘之夜》等應(yīng)用，這款視頻游戲告訴用戶(hù)，他們可以在瀏覽器中支付更少的費(fèi)用。但隨著越來(lái)越多的大公司采用差別定價(jià)，消費(fèi)者可能會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果在蘋(píng)果和谷歌的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)之外注冊(cè)，他們可以獲得很大的折扣。