Instagram Is Testing Paid Subscription Features in the US
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri announced that the social media platform began testing paid subscriptions that will allow users to pay for extra content from their favorite creators. The feature is currently being tested on a small group of creators for users in the US but will expand in the coming months.
🎉 Subscriptions 🎉
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) January 19, 2022
Subscriptions allow creators to monetize and become closer to their followers through exclusive experiences:
- Subscriber Lives
- Subscriber Stories
- Subscriber Badges
We hope to add more creators to this test in the coming months. More to come. ✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/SbFhN2QWMX
The feature is now available to those who follow Alan Chikin Chow, basketball player Sedona Prince, Aliza like Ibiza, Don Allen Stevenson, and six other creators.
Creators who take part in the test will be able to offer their subscribers exclusive access to select Instagram Live videos and Stories, which will be marked with purple circles for better recognition. Authors will be able to choose a price for access to the exclusive content they produce: there are eight pricing tiers from $0.99 to $99.99/month.
Subscribers will also get a special badge that will help them stand out in the comments and DMs among other followers. After subscribing, users will receive notifications of exclusive Live streams where they can interact more closely with the creators since the number of viewers will naturally be smaller.
For Instagram, the new feature is an attempt to compete with TikTok, which is attracting more and more creators. Other big tech competitors like YouTube and Snapchat are also trying to win over TikTok users by introducing short videos.