Well, that was fast. Snap has announced that its new paid tier, Snapchat+, has already reached one million users. This milestone was reached about 45 days after it launched, signaling clear demand for premium social apps… and a departure (or diversification) from advertising models in the privacy era.
Before going into those macro factors and Snap’s strategic positioning, what is Snapchat+? Joining the emerging crop of paid tiers in the social world – such as Twitter Blue – the subscription offers premium perks for power users. It costs $3.99 per month and launched in late June for general availability.
What do those “perks” include specifically? For one, Snapchat+ offers deeper analytics on published Stories. For example, subscribers can see who rewatched a given story, which can be valuable for Snapchat influencers and brand marketers that want to optimize content or retarget audiences.
Power Users
Speaking of perks and features, Snap has coupled the 1-million user announcement with the launch of a few updates that are meant to boost traction further. These new features include access to Snapchat on the web, prioritizing Story replies over those of non-Snapchat+ subscribers, and exclusive Bitmoji skins.
Reply prioritization in Stories notably applies to celebrity posts. So within crowded message threads for a given celebrity Story (think Kardashians), some Snapchat power users and pop culture junkies may gladly hand over $3.99 per month for above-the-fold exposure. Their replies float to the top.
These updates join existing features including special badges and icons, pinning profiles of close friends for easy access to messaging threads, deeper analytics on who’s viewing stories, and location tracking. Snapchat+ also offers early access to pre-release features before anyone else can use them.
As for availability, Snapchat+ was first launched in the U.S. Canada, U.K. France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and the UAB. Since then, it has added India, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Finland and Austria.
Demand Signals
Back to the notion of diversifying revenue, there’s a bit of that happening here, though ads remain Snap’s primary revenue stream. In that sense, Snapchat+ carries a similar rationale as Twitter Blue. Both companies seek new revenue streams as they get larger and core revenue matures.
Snap is also looking for ways to get Wall Street excited. Despite a slight uptick, 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.
Either way, one thing has been made clear in the one-million user milestone which is a resounding demand signal for premium social services… at least how Snapchat+ has positioned them. This was a question mark in the service’s June launch. In fact, we posed that very question at the time:
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.
Well, that feeling out has happened – at least for a limited time period. Though it’s been less than two months, demand signals seem strong, which is validating for Snapchat+. We’ll have to wait to see if that momentum continues or hits a ceiling anytime soon…
