In a statement, Snap has announced an optional subscription service called Snapchat Plus which offers “exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features.” It is being built for Snapchat’s “passionate” users and launched this week in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates for $4 per month.
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There aren’t many unique features at launch, which some of these “passionate” users may bemoan, but it includes the ability to change the app icon, see who re-watched a story and pin a friend to the top of your chat history as a ‘BFF’.
The min question on most users’ minds – does the subscription let you turn off the ads? Well, no. According to Jacob Andreou, the company’s SVP of Product, it is clear that “ads are going to be at the core of our business model for the long term.”
The new Snapchat Plus subscription service is another way for Snap to diversify its revenue streams. It has a range of Spectacles that is integrated with its services. It also launched the Pixy drone, which seems to be doing well.
Andreou downplays the timing of the announcement, which comes just a month after Snap warned of slowing revenue growth. He says his team has been thinking about a paid offering since at least 2016. The company called Snapchat Plus an “early” internal test after it was discovered in the app’s code just two weeks ago.
Snap isn’t the only social app to introduce a paid tier recently: both Twitter and Telegram have rolled out their own subscriptions aimed at pro users, and Discord has made money for years through its optional Nitro subscription. “Those tiers where they are monetizing less but are able to inject ads actually end up being by far their most lucrative and most beneficial tiers,” Andreou says.
