Facebook Charging Users To Send Messages

Facebook is now charging users to send messages to people outside of their social circle, and evidently testing the price points.

We discovered this when we tried to send a message to Ujena Swimwear to talk to her about her business.  

To send a message from a person in Palo Alto to a person who has linked their page to a business in Mountain View, Facebook is charging $15. That fee will direct your message to their inbox. If you don't pay the fee, the message will be relegated to the "other" inbox. 

We asked a Ujena Swimwear employee if her company instigated that fee. No, she said. Facebook started charging automatically. The swimwear company is not receiving a portion of that revenue.  

In January, Huffington Post reported that Facebook was charging $100 to send a message to Mark Zuckerberg, in an attempt to keep down spam.  

Facebook, a Menlo Park-based company, is not charging people to send messages to pages that they've liked, in all the scenarios we created. I wasn't charged when I sent a message to Flea Street Cafe, or to Mountain View Patch, from my personal Facebook account. 

One way to circumvent the fee is to add the person as a friend. Friend to friend messages are still free.