Facebook testing paid Highlight feature for promoting posts
updated 11:50 am EDT, Fri May 11, 2012
Facebook looking to charge users to highlight posts
Facebook is testing monetizing prioritizing posts in a news feed, Stuff learned during an interview with the social network's Mia Garlick. Called Highlight, a number of price points are being tested, including free. Basically, users will have the option of paying to make their posts more visible on the news feeds of friends when sharing them. The current tests are meant only to gauge user interest, the spokesperson said.
The test started at $2, as the image below suggests. A user in Whangarei, New Zealand stumbled across it, believing it to be some kind of a scam.
As the name suggests, the posts would have a yellow background that's applied to status updates and picture posts.
This is the first attempt by Facebook to make money directly from its users.
The popular social network may have to explore such options in order to justify its recent IPO, which it estimated to ranges between $77 and $96 billion. [via The Verge]
