Facebook Inc unveiled a test on Thursday that charges users to send certain types of messages through the social network, the latest example of the company looking for new sources of revenue and profit.<\/p>\n
Until now, Facebook’s messaging system sends the most-relevant messages, including those from users’ Facebook friends, into an Inbox and siphons off less-relevant messages, such as potential spam, in an “Other” folder.<\/p>\n
“Today we’re starting a small experiment to test the usefulness of economic signals to determine relevance,” Facebook said. “This test will give a small number of people the option to pay to have a message routed to the ‘Inbox’ rather than the ‘Other’ folder of a recipient that they are not connected with.”<\/p>\n
A Facebook spokesman said the charge for the test is $1 per message, but added that the company is still looking for the “optimum” price. Users can only receive one of these paid, re-routed messages per week, he noted.<\/p>\n
The company said its test service may be useful in certain situations, such as allowing users to send a message to someone they heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or contacting someone about a job opportunity.<\/p>\n
Facebook, which went public earlier this year, is under pressure from Wall Street to find new sources of revenue and profit. The company has responded with a series of new services and tests in recent months. In September, the company said it would start charging merchants to run offers on its social network.<\/p>\n
The test messaging service is similar to the InMail service from LinkedIn Corp, the professional networking rival to Facebook, which lets users with high-end subscriptions send messages to other LinkedIn members outside their networks.<\/p>\n
“For the receiver, this test allows them to hear from people who have an important message to send them,” Facebook added.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Dan Grebler)<\/p>\n
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