If social apps are looking at how they can maximize interest in their add-on subscription offerings, Snapchat is showing them the way.
Last week, within Snap’s Q2 performance update, the company reported that its Snapchat+ subscription package is now up to 11 million paying subscribers.
Which makes it the most successful of the recent wave of social subscription offerings, which, on Facebook and X at least, have put more focus on verification as a perk, effectively diluting the value of the very product that they’re trying to sell.
Which seems like a backwards step.
So how has Snap seen success with its offering? Through audience nous and understanding, and providing add-on features that users actually want.
As per Snap:
“In 2022, we started Snapchat+ with just six experiences. Now subscribers have access to over 40 exclusive features, including Chat Wallpapers, Custom App Icons, and AI Bitmoji Pets. Our Snapchat+ community has also been first to try some of our favorite features, including Snapchat for Web and My AI, now available for Snapchatters globally.”
Snapchat has always been more connected with its user community, which is also why it’s seen great success with its AR features. Because it knows what its users want, and Snapchat+ is another indicator of that connectedness, and being in-tune with its community.
So exactly how successful is Snapchat+ as a subscription offering?
Well, based on reported numbers, this is where each subscription offering currently stands:
(Worth noting that these are based on estimates calculated from the reported figures from each company, with only YouTube and Snapchat publishing confirmed subscription numbers.)
As you can see, based on the data at hand, Snapchat has seen a far higher percentage of take-up for Snapchat+ than Meta and X have seen with their subscription offerings. The longer-standing add-on packages, in LinkedIn Premium and YouTube Premium, are still more popular, but they’ve also been in the market for many more years, and offer alternate value, in improving job prospects, or removing ads from video playback.
So they may not be directly comparable in this sense, and either way, Snapchat has seen more success than others within the new wave of subscriptions, providing another steady revenue stream for the company.
So what can Meta and X learn from Snapchat+?
Well, selling verification still seems like a road to nowhere, and just because some people will pay for a checkmark, that doesn’t, in my opinion at least, mean that you should be selling them.
But if there’s an opportunity for quick cash, it also makes sense that they take it, but really, what Snapchat’s shown is that users will pay for add-ons that align with an enhanced user experience, as opposed to faking authority or importance in the app.
That seems to be the real differentiator here, and Snapchat, in this sense, is winning.
It’ll be interesting to see how much Snapchat+ can grow in the coming months.
