Facebook to Charge Businesses for Offers

Facebook is no longer free for everyone.
The social network has announced it will begin charging businesses to run Offers in a bid to generate revenue to pacify its investors.
Facebook will soon require businesses to pay at least $5 on related ads to promote each Facebook Offer to a targeted audience of fans and friends of fans, Reuters reported Sept. 20. The fee will vary depending on the size of a company’s Facebook pages.
Investors sued Facebook after a flawed preliminary public offering May 18. Technical glitches at the NASDAQ exchange and allegations the company deliberately divulged unfavorable information about its business prospects to privileged investors is at issue. Facebook’s stock plunged as much as 50 percent after it was introduced at $38 per share.
The retail potential of Facebook, known as f-commerce, has yet to become apparent, partly because retailers have been able to access a pile of free tools with which to draw customers, Reuters reports. Turning Facebook Offers into a paid ad service implies the social network is working to erase that ability.
“We think this aligns incentives nicely,” said Facebook’s advertising and Pages businesses director of product management, Gokul Rajaram. “The best results on Facebook Offers will come from organic distribution plus paid distribution.”
Facebook is also expanding Offers to online-only businesses, rather than only to companies with bricks and mortar locations, Rajaram told Reuters.
Facebook will also include barcodes for offers, so consumers can more easily redeem offers, Rajaram said. The barcodes will work globally.