Employers will be charged $3 per employee for the first 1,000 monthly active users, $2 a head from 1,001 to 10,000 users and $1 per worker beyond that, Facebook said in a statement.
According to Bloomberg, the product will give Facebook a new stream of revenue, to supplement advertising on its free social network. Workplace is designed to compete with services from Microsoft Corp., Salesforce.com Inc. and Slack Technologies Inc. to provide a controlled setting online for collaborative conversations on the job. Microsoft is in the process of acquiring LinkedIn Corp. to add social elements to its business tools, for example.
“The new global and mobile workplace isn’t about closed-door meetings or keeping people separated by title, department or geography,” Facebook said in a blog post. “Organizations are stronger and more productive when everyone comes together.”
Facebook already has 1,000 organizations using Workplace, including Starbucks, Oxfam and Booking.com, it said in the blog post.