Exclusive: Snapchat+ draws 4 million paid subscribers in first year
- Sara Fischer, author ofAxios Media Trends
Photo courtesy of Snapchat
Snapchat on Thursday will announce that its subscription service, Snapchat+, has reached 4 million paid subscribers in its first year, executives told Axios.
Why it matters: Getting users to pay for social media services that they've grown accustomed to getting for free is not easy.
- Snapchat's showing it can work with the right offering at the right price point ($3.99 monthly).
Catch up quick: Snapchat released Snapchat+ in June 2022 as a way to offer its most loyal users access to experimental and pre-released features.
- Two months later, more than 1 million users had signed up.
- In the time since, Snapchat has added more features to the subscription product, including a first look at its new AI-powered chatbot.
What they're saying: "Since launching the service a year ago, the appetite for it has been incredible and our team is excited to continue driving a rapid cadence of new experiences for our growing subscriber base of more than four million," said Jack Brody, vice president of product at Snapchat.
What's next: Snapchat plans to roll out new features to Snapchat+ subscribers in the coming weeks, including "expressive" chat messages that allow users to match their text with bigger fonts to show more emotion and custom chat colors.
The big picture: Social networks, having reached a point of maturity and facing a slowdown in the ad market, are looking to make more money from subscriptions and licensing, Axios has reported.
- Twitter's subscription service launched originally in 2021 and was relaunched under Elon Musk's ownership late last year.
- Meta announced its version of a paid verification subscription service in the U.S. earlier this year.