In-person attendance at events acros the spectrum have been put on hold well into 2021. This has seen the inevitable rise of virtual gatherings, including industry leading events.
Enter Facebook.
Looking to jump on this bandwagon, Facebook have seen live broadcasts from Pages double year-on-year in June.
Now, Facebook has launched the ability for Pages to start charging for the online activities that they hold via the platform. They have stated that for at least the first year they will not be gathering fees from the events, basically, just enough time for the system to take off before they begin to cash in. Plus they are hoping that you pay for some ads to promote the event.
On the web and Android, Facebook Pay has been launched for SMB’s to be able to collect the online event payments. However, thing do get more difficult on iOS systems. This is because Apple have declined to waive their usual 30% in-app purchase fee (why would they want to miss out on more money)- therefore SME’s will collect 70% of the total ticket price bought through the iOS app.
It is a potential new revenue source that creators and businesses can make use of whilst still engaging with their followers in person (or as close as we can get at the moment), this could see paid virtual event business models being normalised.
