During a press conference, Facebook announced that they will launch a new monthly service plan starting November 1, the social media firm will be charging their users, $2.99 monthly service fee for the free features like photo uploads/storage. Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, explained, "We thought long and hard about this decision, but at the end of the day, we had no choice but to add this monthly fee. If we don't do something about our rising costs now, Facebook could face an unrecoverable financial burden and become obsolete. This is excellent news for Facebook stock holders. As of August this year, Facebook had a total of 1.317 billion users. If just 75% of those members pay the new monthly service fee of $3, that will mean an annual influx of cash totaling roughly $36 billion. That's not just an increase in profits of a few dollars, that's a game changer right there."
Facebook spokesman Paul Horner explained the raison d'être for the new monthly fee in an interview with CNN
"Economic times are tight, the ads on Facebook are not as profitable as we had planned. Our costs are going up as hundreds of thousands of individuals continue to join the site every day," Horner said. "There's so many pictures of cats, and all of those costs add up, we just can't foot the bill any longer."
"I can barely pay for my girly subscriptions as it is, now this Zuckerberg character wants another $3 a month out of me? Well I don't think so bud," he added. "There's free news out there that I get all my learning from, like The Epoch Times. I know their stories are not real, some fancy word called 'satirical', but they makes me laugh. Sure, their grammar and spelling is just God-awful, but I like that; it makes me feel smarter." Phillips pursued, "As for this monthly fee though, I do like using Facebook. That Farmville game on there cracks me up. Hey, look at me, I'm planting some carrots in a field around my kick *ss barn. My friends just love it when I contact them about planting my crops. They're like, 'Dangit Jack, you and your gosh dang crops', I'll tell you what."
At this point, it is important to choose the suitable Facebook plan for you, although, there's still a free option which will permit Facebook account access for up to one hour a week.