Eva Deschamps / January 20, 2022
Instagram will give influencers the opportunity to offer paid subscriptions to their fans, a new tool for the social network that needs to attract and retain content creators to not lose ground to YouTube and TikTok.
Creators need predictable revenue, Adam Mosseri, the head of the platform, which is owned by Meta (Facebook), explained in a video Wednesday.
And subscriptions are one of the best ways to have predictable revenues that don't depend on the audience that inevitably varies from publication to publication, he continued.
To start, Instagram will test this approach with a handful of influencers in the US.
Their paying subscribers will have access to exclusive stories (ephemeral publications) and lives (live videos), and will be distinguished from other fans by a purple symbol next to their name, so that creators can easily identify them in comments or private messages.
Social networks that were initially free - since their economic model is based on advertising revenues - have deployed different remuneration techniques in recent years.
They allow platform professionals to diversify their revenue sources, beyond the advertising percentage, derivative products, contracts with brands and sales of educational or sports programs.
On TikTok, for example, viewers can make donations. On Twitch (video game platform) too, and they can also subscribe to their favorite players.
Twitter has followed suit with initiatives such as paid subscriptions to certain accounts or the Tip Jar.