Facebook charging $100 to message Mark Zuckerberg, other select users

Facebook is charging some users $100 to get a message to the top of the social network founder's inbox. Mashable first noticed the hefty pricetag, which it reports only appears to users who aren't one of Zuckerberg's 16 million followers.

The feature seems to be an extension of the pay-for-messages experiment started in December 2012.

As of Friday afternoon, the payment option seemed sporadic, as several Huffington Post editors successfully messaged the Facebook founder without being asked to fork out the three-figure sum. That said, the messages likely went straight to Zuckerberg's "Other" folder, a little-known dark corner that collects users' Facebook messages from non-friends.

Under Facebook's experiment, users can pay a fee to have a Facebook message reach the main inbox of a non-friend rather than the obscure "Other" folder. In a blog posted in December, Facebook stressed the new message-based charges are currently only a test and have only been rolled out to "a small number of people."

One such person is Kate Gardiner, a digital media consultant followed by 111,000 people on Facebook. She told The Huffington Post she was surprised when an acquaintance told her recently it would cost $100 to send her a message because they were not connected as friends on Facebook.

This latest feature comes as Facebook's tries new strategies to increase its revenue stream.