Advertising on Facebook and Instagram will become less personalized: users will not pay for it
Meta has considered introducing Facebook and Instagram subscriptions for users who want to reduce the use of their data for ad targeting. However, under pressure from European regulators, Mark Zuckerberg’s company had to offer this option for free.
In the coming days, Instagram and Facebook users in EU countries will be able to see less personalized ads. The decision was a compromise for Meta, which initially planned to make the service with less data usage a fee, informs The Wall Street Journal.
Less personalized ads will be based on the context of a particular browsing session, that is, what content the user is viewing at that moment. The traditional method of targeting, which takes into account the previous activity of the user, will not be applied in this case.
However, some ads for EU users will be shown based on age, gender and location. The new ad will take up the entire screen and will be unskippable for a few seconds.
Meta has warned European regulators that a decline in ad personalization could negatively impact its revenues. According to the latest financial reports, 23% of the company’s profit comes from the EU market and neighboring countries. It is not yet known whether Meta plans to offer the same capabilities to users outside the European Union.
It will be recalled that in July of this year, European regulators accused Meta of violating new laws on digital competition due to an attempt to introduce a paid subscription. If the violation is repeated, companies face fines of up to 10% of annual revenue, and up to 20% for repeat violations.
