Meta launches paid verification service ‘Meta Verified’ in the US

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Friday that the social media company has expanded its new premium subscription service ‘’Meta Verified’’ to Facebook and Instagram users in the United States.

The company first launched the Twitter-Blue like service in Australia and New Zealand last month, saying that it would be rolled out to other countries soon.

With the new expansion, Facebook and Instagram users in the US over the age of 18 are now able to subscribe to Meta Verified with their government ID, for various perks like the blue verification badge, protection against impersonators, direct access to customer support, and premium features.

The plan costs $11.99 when bought on the web and $14.99 when bought on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram apps, likely as a result of Google and Apple’s controversial in-app purchase cuts. Because of the same reason, Elon Musk’s Twitter also raised the mobile price of Twitter Blue from $8 to $11 on both iOS and Android.

As the advertising industry has taken a hit by the post-pandemic global economic slowdown, social media companies are now exploring different ways in an effort to boost their revenue. In addition to Meta and Twitter, Snap and Telegram also launched their premium subscription models last year, and both Snapchat+ and Telegram Premium now have over 1 million subscribers.

The expansion news comes a week after Meta announced that it would lay off another 10,000 employees, and end support for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Facebook and Instagram.