Following Twitter’s much-discussed paid tier, Twitter Blue, Snap appears to be interested in something similar. Though details are scant, the company has indicated that it’s testing a paid subscription tier called Snapchat+. This would give users premium perks and early access to new features.
These features could include special badges and icons, pinning profiles of close friends for easy access to messaging threads, deeper analytics on who’s viewing your stories, and location tracking. The latter involves seeing more details about friends’ locations – at least those who have opted to share that data.
As for the “early access” part, it appears that paid-tier users will be able to play with new Snapchat tools before anyone else. This would seem to appeal to Snap power users and super fans. Indeed, these are the personas most likely to pay a monthly fee for things like exclusive features and early access.
But one question that arises is how Snap will reconcile the early-access perks of this paid tier with its existing beta program… which is free. Another question is pricing, with some hints that it will be around $5 per month or $45 per year. We’ll have to wait to see more official details from Snap.
Generally-Escalating Disdain
Backing up, what’s driving this decision? It appears to be similar to Twitter’s rationale: revenue growth and diversification. Both companies continue to seek new revenue streams as they get larger and core revenue matures to varying degrees. Snap is earlier in that lifecycle arc, but the same thinking applies.
Snap is also likely looking for ways to get Wall Street excited. Despite a recent rally, its stock has tumbled over the past six months, not unlike the broader tech sector but at a greater rate of decline. Like Meta, it’s feeling an additional sting from privacy reform and ensuing platform (read iOS) restrictions.
That, plus a generally-escalating disdain for ad-supported business models, is likely driving this move for Snap (and Twitter). Besides the ad targeting and data misuse crimes of the past (not necessarily committed by the companies named in this article) advertising is universally panned in all the Web3 talk.
In other words, there’s some future-proofing and experimentation happening here. Despite hand-wringing in the tech press and generalist media, the jury is still out if consumers want paid/premium content versus ad-supported fare (though optionality is always good). It will require some feeling out.
Meanwhile, the company revealed some (again, scant) qualifications of its intent to Techcrunch:
“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,”
