Update: Facebook says PicoCandy’s Stickers are not official Facebook Messenger Stickers and that the app is not the first to monetize its Messenger offerings. The social network also wants to point out that all official Facebook Sticker packs will remain free.
Could paid stickers become a new source of revenue for third-party Facebook developers? The social network hopes so.
While Facebook’s stickers likely don’t seem like a significant feature to many people, they’re reportedly big sellers, especially internationally. Playing off this fact, Facebook has partnered with Singapore-based startup PicoCandy to offer a selection of new emoji and sticker packs priced between $0.99 USD and $1.99 USD. PicoCandy has also released its first consumer app.
Stickers first grew in popularity throughout Asia, originally highlighted by Japanese mobile messaging giant, Line. Facebook has also forged partnerships with toy brands like Lego and Despicable Me (for Minionsm of course), but until now stickers have largely been free. The social network doesn’t take a cut of any third-party stickers sold through its platform.
Three hundred million of Facebook’s 1.5 billion monthly active users are located in Asia, so there is an already established audience for stickers. For example, two years ago, Line was making $10 million per month just on sticker sales from its 230 million users. This number has likely increased considerably since then.
These new paid stickers are purchased through PicoCandy’s Android and iOS Messenger app. This means that users will need to download PicoCandy’s app and install it in Facebook Messenger in order to purchase the packs. Facebook plans to integrate third-party stickers directly into messenger in the near future, similar to the way the company recently added GIF support.
PicoCandy also has partnerships with companies like Viber and BBM. The company’s app is available for free on iOS.
In an amusing turn of events, Facebook isn’t the first company to try to monetize stickers. BlackBerry recently launched an iOS, Android and BB10 BBM sticker subscription service.
Related reading: BlackBerry launches a new SaaS — Stickers as a Service
[source]TechCrunch[/source]
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