Bill Bennett: Tech commentator on Meta launching a new subscription service which will charge businesses

Some small Kiwi businesses are finding themselves a little surprised at Facebook's latest fees. Meta, the parent company, has launched a new subscription service that charges business a monthly fee to post links to their websites. In New Zealand, it costs $260 a month, and businesses will be limited just to, limited to just 20 links in the comments. Tech commentator Bill Bennett is with us now. Hi, Bill.

Hi, Heather.

That's a bit steep, isn't it?

Well, it really is. I mean, the thing about it is, is, um, Meta has, you know, Meta has assumed that it's being bought by small businesses, which in America a small business can be 500 employees. But in New Zealand it's like a coffee cart or a-

Yeah

... food truck or maybe a, maybe some, a small music venue or someone like that, where the people are living, you know, more or less hand to mouth. So, you know, a dollar goes into a coffee cart or a food truck, it's a dollar in the owner's pocket, and $300... Because by the time you pay GST, it'll probably be near the price of $300. Um, $300 going out every month is $300 that, you know, isn't paying off your mortgage or your food bills or whatever.

No, I absolutely would not go for it. So for, but for a lot of businesses, they have built a following around their Facebook or their Instagram accounts. How do they transfer that over to some other place that isn't charging them?

Well, it's gonna be hard. It's, it's gonna be really hard, but the social media companies have, have basically done what drug dealers do. You know, get people hooked on the [laughs] hooked on the product-

Yeah

... and then start charging. [laughs] That's, you know, that's exactly how it works in, um, in the, um, the sharper parts of the economy.

[laughs] All right. So what do people... If, if you're a small business, if you're a coffee cart and you're like, "I can't do this," this... Where do you go? Where do you migrate-

Yeah

... your base to?

I would suggest they get their own website and perhaps look at the, um, local New Zealand. There's some, there are some options in New Zealand, some, um, neighborhood sites and so on. But in general, uh, the best thing to do if you can afford it, is to get your own website. And your own website can be really, really simple.

Mm.

It doesn't have to be bells and whistles. It doesn't have to have features. It can be, you know, it can just be a webpage telling people where to find you.

Interesting. Hey, Bill, thanks for your advice as... Good chat always. Is Bill Bennett, tech commentator.

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