Social media giant Snapchat is currently trialling a new paid subscription service called Snapchat Plus, which is currently in “early internal testing”. The new service will offer users early access to new features.
Speaking to The Verge about the new service, Snap spokesperson Liz Markman said: “We’re doing early internal testing of Snapchat Plus, a new subscription service for Snapchatters. We’re excited about the potential to share exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features with our subscribers, and learn more about how we can best serve our community.”
What features will Snapchat Plus offer?
According to information that has leaked online, Snapchat Plus will offer subscribers a number of unique features. With Snapchat Plus, a user can:
- Pin someone as their ‘number 1 BFF’
- Change the Snapchat icon
- See who re-watched their stories
- Display a badge on their profile
- See their orbit with their BFF
- See a friend’s whereabouts in the last 24 hours
According to an app researcher, Snapchat Plus is currently listed as $4.84 a month or $48.50 a year. However, these prices have not been confirmed and may just be placeholders.
The view from Spike – Move to paid subscription models is part of a wider trend in social media
With cookies and privacy issues currently affecting the advertising-based business models of social media platforms, a move towards paid subscription services like Snapchat Plus could become the norm in the industry.
Several social media platforms have already either launched paid subscription models, or have announced plans to enter the space. For example, Telegram has also announced that it is working on a premium subscription service that will launch at the end of this month, and Twitter launched its Blue service in late 2021.
Over the next 12 months, we believe that more companies will follow this approach. After all, Apple has introduced a privacy feature for advertisements as part of iOS 14.5, which will allow users to turn off ad tracking on an app-by-app basis. Due to this, many social media apps will be unable to make money and will have to create new sources of revenue.
Author spike.digital