If social apps are considering how to maximize interest in add-on subscription services, Snapchat is showing them how.
Last week, Snap reported during its second-quarter earnings call that it now has 11 million paying subscribers to its Snapchat+ subscription package.
This has made it the most successful social subscription service of recent times. At least for Facebook and X, the emphasis on verification as a perk effectively dilutes the value of the actual product they’re trying to sell.
That seems like a step backwards.
So how has Snap achieved success with its service? Through knowing and understanding its users, and providing add-on features that users actually want.
According to Snap:
“In 2022, we launched Snapchat+ with just six experiences. Today, subscribers have access to over 40 exclusive features, including chat wallpapers, custom app icons, AI Bitmoji pets, and more. The Snapchat+ community has also been the first to try some of our favorite features, like Snapchat for Web and My AI, which are now available to Snapchatters around the world.”
Snapchat is always growing closer to its user community, which is why it has been so successful with its AR features – it knows what its users want, and Snapchat+ is another indication of that connection and in-tune with the community.
So how successful is Snapchat+ as a subscription service?
So, based on the reported numbers, the availability for each subscription currently looks like this:
(Note that these figures are based on estimates made from the numbers reported by each company; only YouTube and Snapchat publish confirmed subscriber numbers.)
As you can see, based on the data at hand, Snapchat’s adoption rate for Snapchat+ is much higher than its subscription services Meta and X. Longer-standing add-on packages like LinkedIn Premium and YouTube Premium remain popular, but they’ve been on the market for years and offer other value propositions, like improving job prospects or removing ads from video playback.
So in this sense the two may not be directly comparable, but either way, Snapchat has been more successful than other services in the new wave of subscriptions, providing the company with a new and stable revenue stream.
So what can Meta and X learn from Snapchat+?
Well, selling certification still seems like a dead-end road, and just because some people will pay for a checkmark doesn’t mean you should sell it, at least in my opinion.
But while it’s natural to take an opportunity to make some quick cash, what Snapchat has actually shown is that users will pay for add-ons that improve their experience, rather than falsely representing authority or importance within the app.
This seems to be the real differentiator here, and in this sense Snapchat wins.
It will be interesting to see how much Snapchat+ can grow in the coming months.
