Meta's Premium Branding Mess
Sarah Perez
And there I was, ready to make fun of Google's rather ridiculous branding for 'Google AI Ultra'. One tidbit out of Google I/O last week was there are now two tiers for the highest end of Gemini access and usage – but they're both called the same thing. Google easily could have slotted in 'Max' to denote the new $100/month plan, as it would have worked quite nicely with 'Plus', 'Pro', 'Max', and 'Ultra' (thanks in large part to Apple's consumer hardware branding efforts). But no, there are now two 'Ultra' tiers, one at $100/month and one remaining at $200/month, seemingly just to confuse people.
Anyway, that's silly – to the point where Google has already had to clarify the plans. But into the bar walks Meta, going full-on "hold my beer".
It starts out simple enough. Meta, as has long been rumored (and tested – humorously by force in Europe), is getting into the subscription game for their myriad social services. So now worldwide we're getting:
- Facebook Plus – $3.99/month
- Instagram Plus – $3.99/month
- WhatsApp Plus – $2.99/month
While the earlier test versions were focused on fewer (or un-targeted) ads, these seemingly each will have new features and functionality. They're decidedly not for the masses, but instead for power users of each product. They're basically Meta's way to milk the whales. Can you milk a whale? Meta is going to find out!
With user growth continuing to slow, and in some markets retract, this is the old tried and true playbook of profit harvesting. It perhaps points to peak ad saturation. Or simply the need for new revenue streams for Meta – which is still beholden to one business and model far more than any of their peers.
Anyway, all of that makes sense and is relatively straightforward. It would probably make sense to be able to bundle such offerings altogether for, say, $9.99/month (about a buck off), but that will undoubtedly be tested too. I mean, they're already using the 'Meta One' moniker... But from here, for some reason, ideas and models keep flowing and going...
Alongside the launch, Meta says it will begin testing even more subscription plans, which is where things start to get confusing.
For Meta AI users, it will test two plans — Meta One Plus ($7.99/mo) and Meta One Premium ($19.99/mo) with the same features, but the Premium plan unlocks more capacity on higher compute queries. That means the Premium plan would offer deeper reasoning for complex tasks (i.e., more of “thinking mode” in the Meta AI app or on the web). It would also offer move video and image generation capabilities across Meta’s apps.
Okay, so much for my 'Meta One' $9.99/month plan when 'Meta One Plus' costs $7.99/month. And it seemingly has nothing to do with any of the social 'Plus' plans, but instead is only about AI. But it's also not called 'Muse Plus' – the new branding for Meta's latest AI efforts (RIP 'Llama'). Nor is it called 'Meta AI Plus', which would seemingly be more straightforward (in line with Google's premium naming for AI). 'Meta One Premium' offers a weird jump from $7.99/month to $19.99/month (why not $14.99/month?) and not only buys more compute, but also gets new capabilities across the aforementioned social apps.
But wait, there's more:
The Meta One Essential plan ($14.99/mo) will offer the Verified badge, impersonation protection, and an enhanced linksheet where users can link out to their online presence across social channels and the web, similar to Meta Verified.
The more expensive Meta One Advanced plan ($49.99/mo) will include the Essential plan benefits, as well as the ability to be featured in the Facebook feed, appear higher in Facebook and Instagram search results, gain attention with a bold “Follow” button on Reels, and automatically send “follow” invitations to people who engage with your content.
I mean, what? Now I'm legitimately confused. Seemingly the reason why 'Meta One Premium' isn't $14.99/month is because that's the price of 'Meta One Essential'. But that gives you totally different things than the other 'Meta One' plans, namely identity protection. That's great (and, of course, already offered), but maybe call it something else given these other offerings?
'Meta One Advanced' takes the confusion to another level by adding in the ability to be featured in the Facebook feed and Instagram search algos. This is basically the growth-hacky "Shit X Does Plan".
Again, fine. But it's going to be confusing as hell when it's all branded as 'Meta One' alongside the premium AI stuff. Let's just spell out the offerings here in ascending order:
- WhatsApp Plus (Social) – $2.99/month
- Facebook Plus (Social) – $3.99/month
- Instagram Plus (Social) – $3.99/month
- Meta One Plus (AI) – $7.99/month
- Meta One Essential (Identification) – $14.99/month
- Meta One Premium (AI) – $19.99/month
- Meta One Advanced (Marketing) – $49.99/month
So that's three social 'Plus' offerings, all collectively under the 'Meta One' idea, but not called that. Plus another 'Plus' that has nothing to do with social, but is about AI. But the other, more expensive AI offering does have some interaction with the social offerings under the 'Premium' moniker. Which is more expensive than the 'Essential' version of the same 'Meta One' brand, because that's only about identity verification. With the last and most expensive 'Meta One' product being all about brands (and I suppose individuals) being able to spam – er, market to – the various Meta social products.
Got all that? I'm not certain I do. We're not quite in Microsoftian territory, but we're close! Maybe Meta should just stick with ads.
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
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