Social Media Giants Begin Charging for Ad-Free Tiers as Users Increasingly Willing to Pay

Meta is charging for ad-free Facebook and Instagram, following other platforms with paid tiers like Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat.

People are surprisingly willing to pay for social media, with hundreds of thousands subscribing to Twitter's $8 verified tier.

Paid social media marks a shift from free, ad-supported models to directly charging users.

This could incentivize platforms to make free experiences worse to upsell subscriptions, like airlines have done.

Social media is increasingly seen as essential infrastructure, so users have little choice but to accept worsening free experiences or pay up.