Facebook lets U.S. users pay to boost visibility of postings

By Alexei Oreskovic

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc isletting users in the United States pay a fee to boost thevisibility of their postings on the social network, thecompany's latest effort to look beyond advertisers for revenue.

The promoted-posts-for-users feature, which Facebook beganoffering as a test on Wednesday to a limited number of its U.S.users, ensures that a comment or photo shared by a Facebookmember gets prominent billing in their friends' newsfeeds.

"When you promote a post - whether it's wedding photos, agarage sale, or big news - you bump it higher in news feed soyour friends and subscribers are more likely to notice it,"Facebook said in an announcement on its official blog onWednesday.

Facebook is considering a variety of prices. The currenttest price in the United States is $7, according to a Facebookspokesman.

The move marks Facebook's latest effort to experiment withnew ways to make money beyond advertising, which accounted forroughly 84 percent of the company's revenue in the secondquarter. Facebook also takes a 30 percent cut of purchases ofvirtual goods by users playing Zynga's Farmville andother social games on its website.

With Facebook's revenue growth rate showing a sharp slowdownin recent quarters, many analysts and investors believe thecompany needs to find new ways to make money.

Last week, Facebook unveiled a feature that lets U.S. usersbuy and send real gifts, such as eyeglasses, pastries and giftcards to their friends. Initially available to a limited numberof users in the United States, Facebook Gifts could signal thecompany's intent to play a bigger role in e-commerce.

Facebook's main social networking service, which has 955million users, will remain free, said Facebook spokesmanJonathan Thaw.

"Facebook has offered paid products - virtual gifts, virtualgoods in games, sponsored stories, ads - for years, and stillremains free. This doesn't change that," said Thaw.

The paid postings will be visible on the desktop and mobileversions of the social network. Facebook will place the paid-forpostings towards the top of people's newsfeeds for a limitedperiod of time. Facebook's newsfeed typically displays contentby freshness and relevance.

The promoted-posts-for-users feature was first tested in NewZealand in May, and Facebook said it has tested the service in20 other countries since then.

Shares of Facebook, which made its public market debut at$38 a share in May, were down 1.7 percent at $21.89 inafternoon trading on Wednesday.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Keywords: FACEBOOK FEATURE/