Meta is reducing the price of its ad-free subscription and introducing less personalised ads for Facebook and Instagram. This decision is part of Meta’s efforts to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The company is slashing its monthly subscription for an ad-free experience by up to 40%. The web-based subscription for ad-free Facebook and Instagram will drop from €9.99 to €5.99 monthly.
The price will fall from €12.99 to €7.99 per month for mobile users on iOS and Android.
Additionally, each extra account added to the subscription will cost €4 per month on the web and €5 per month on mobile platforms.
Existing subscribers will see an automatic price reduction, with no action required on their part. However, Meta will prompt all EU users again to decide if they wish to opt for the subscription at this new lower price.
Meta is also responding to growing pressure from EU regulators by offering a new option for users who wish to continue using Facebook and Instagram for free but with fewer personalised ads.
This new ‘less personalised ads’ option, which will roll out in the coming weeks, will show users ads based on minimal data points such as age, gender, and location, instead of the rich, behavioural data used for tailored ads.
Under this model, ads will be displayed based on context, such as the content a user is viewing, rather than detailed user profiles or interests. While this may offer some users more control over their data, the ads are expected to be less relevant and engaging. To offset this reduced relevance, Meta will introduce unskippable ad breaks, common across many digital platforms, to help advertisers reach a broader audience.
“Over the coming weeks, people in the EU who choose to use Facebook and Instagram for free with ads will be able to choose to see ‘less personalised ads’. This less personalised ads option relies on fewer data, so we’ll show ads based only on context – what a person sees in a particular session on Facebook and Instagram – and a minimal set of data points, including a person’s age, location, gender, and how a person engages with ads,” Meta explained.
In January 2024, Meta rolled out DMA-compliant options for its platforms.
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