Facebook Charging To Message Celebrities

Pundits have been speculating for years as to how Facebookplans to make money from its gigantic user base, but the firm's latest money-making scheme has taken many by surprise.

The social networking behemoth is now to charge users to send messages to people who are not among their "friends" on the social networking site - and that includes celebrities.

A test scheme just launched in the UK will see users paying to send messages to famous users of the site - with prices ranging from less than a pound to drop Miranda Hart a line to £10.68 to message Tom Daley.

A spokeswoman told The Guardian: "It is being tested among a very small percentage of users. There is no set timescale. It depends on what happens, what feedback we get as to whether it is rolled out nationally.

"We are testing a number of price points in the UK and other countries to establish the optimal fee that signals importance. This is still a test and these prices are not set in stone."

The firm last week unveiled its new Home software for mobile phones.