Facebook confirmed Friday it was dabbling with
charging members as much as $100 to get messages to the inboxes of
strangers such as social network co-founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg.
"We are testing some extreme price points to
see what works to filter spam," Facebook said in response to an AFP
inquiry regarding the costly delivery fees.
In December, Facebook began testing the
feasibility of charging to guarantee that messages from strangers make
it into inboxes of intended recipients.
At its launch, the Facebook Messages test,
limited to the United States, let a sender pay a dollar to make sure an
electronic missive is routed to someone's "inbox" even when the person
is not in their circle of friends.
In a spin revealed by Mashable and other
technology news websites, the test includes evaluating whether
ratcheting up delivery prices for high-profile members such as
Zuckerberg helps ensure that only messages truly of interest get to
inboxes.
The Facebook messaging system was billed as
being designed to deflect seemingly unwanted correspondence into an
"other" folder that can be ignored.
Facebook said it wanted to determine whether
adding a "financial signal" improves its formula for delivering
"relevant and useful" messages to members' inboxes.
Facebook already uses social cues, such as connections between friends, and algorithms that identify spam messages.
Dabbling with getting people to pay to
connect with Facebook members comes as the social network strives to tap
the potential to make money from its membership base of more than a
billion people.
Facebook stock has been climbing since the
end of last year and was trading at $31.72 a share on the Nasdaq
exchange at the closing bell on Friday.
© 2013 AFP
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© 2013 AFP
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