Facebook Announces A Stars Fest Event, Allowing Users To Tip The Platform’s Content Creators And Streamers More

With the holiday season right around the corner, Facebook has launched a new Stars Fest event to help creators rack up more tips and bonuses while also making some profit for itself.

Stars are a form of virtual currency that Facebook has been trying to get users on board for, since they act as a method via which one’s favorite creators can be supported on the platform. They essentially act as the Twitch equivalent of subs, and are dispensed accordingly at livestreams (both video and audio-based). Therefore, Facebook’s platforms such as Gaming as a major font of Stars being utilized. Naturally, the social network will want users to purchase them, since profit and all that, but they also form a majority of earnings for many content creators and streamers operating there. Not all individuals are part of creator programs or have contracts signing them up for the Gaming service. Stars might even be the most that they’ll be able to ever utilize in terms of major monetary gain. Which, to be fair, can often amount to a lot.

Until December 31st, 2021, Facebook has announced discount packages on Stars and bundles across the board, labelling it a Stars Fest event in the spirit of holiday cheer. The social network’s also launched a Stars Store, providing users with a dedicated space to go looking for said discounts. The latter’s both a plus for users and a big, big plus for Facebook itself since the Store sidesteps App Store fees. Apple’s 30% cut on literally every in-app purchase, as well as overall revenue generated from ads and whatnot, has been rightfully called out as being ruthless and even exploitative in certain circumstances. Of course, not all the time, since it’s really hard to exploit a multi-billion-dollar corporation such as Meta or any of its platforms. Then again, Facebook and Apple have had a rather bitter rivalry ongoing since 2020, at the very least.
This all started with the iOS 14 introducing its Tracking/Transparency features, which led to ad revenue being severely cut for app developers across the App Store. Essentially, the features made it so that developers could no longer sell user data to third-party advertisers unless granted explicit permission by users. Since said information often involved either location data or browser history, users obviously chose to opt out, leading to Facebook calling foul play. Of course, the social network, the platform that profited most off of such selling of data, had issues with a major inflow of income being stopped.

Then again, it still happened and Meta stills stands tall as one of the largest tech conglomerates of our time. Drama queen, much?
Read next: Scientists Call on Meta to Be More Transparent About Mental Health
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