Want to message Mark
Zuckerberg on Facebook? For $100, your note will land in his inbox.
Traditionally, if a
Facebook user messages someone outside his or her network, the missive gets
sent to the "Other" mailbox -- a rarely checked purgatory most users
don't even know exists. It's a practice intended to protect users from a spam deluge.
Facebook said in
December that it would begin testing out paid messages, allowing users to
contact people with whom they have no direct connection in return for a fee.
Facebook didn't say at the time how much it would cost, but the answer turns
out to be "a lot."
Mashable discovered on
Thursday that sending a message to Facebook founder Zuckerberg carries a $100
price tag. That's also what it costs to message Facebook COO Sheryl Sandburg ,
CFO David Ebersman, and several other Facebook members CNNMoney tried, such as
Digg founder Kevin Rose.
"We are testing
some extreme price points to see what works to filter spam," a Facebook
representative told CNNMoney. The messaging fee is one of several new revenue
streams Facebook is testing out. The company has traditionally drawn most of
its revenue from advertising sales, but its latest experiments explore
generating cash directly from its 1 billion members. Ahead of the holidays,
Facebook (FB) launched "Facebook Gifts," allowing users to purchase
real-world gifts for their Facebook friends. In October, the social network
started testing out a "Promote" feature that lets users pay $7 to
broadly broadcast important pictures or announcements.
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