Instagram is launching a premium service that gives subscribers access to exclusive content.
Users will be able to pay to view hidden posts and reels from certain content creators, and even participate in private subscriber chats of up to 30 people.
Paying users will also get access to a dedicated home page for any accounts they subscribe to, which will group all the different types of exclusive content an account offers in one place.
It’s part of a much larger project intended to give influencers and other content creators a more stable income from the platform.
Instagram is competiting for with platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat for content creators’ attention and audiences. Creators can already make regular income from subscribers through platforms like OnlyFans, Patreon and Substack.
It’s already introduced several updates to try and win their time. Earlier this year, the company tweaked its algorithm to favour original content over material shared from TikTok, theoretically making it more attractive to make dedicated videos for Instagram.
The new subscriptions will cost users anything from $0.99 to $99.99 a month, and it’s not clear when they will be rolled out outside the US.
The expansion builds on early ‘alpha’ subscriber features like dedicated stories, live videos and badges that were rolled out to a small group of creator accounts in January.
These have since been granted to tens of thousands of content creators in the US, feedback from whom has been used to produce this latest round of updates.
Announcing the new subscription model in an Instagram reel, company CEO Adam Mosseri said he wanted the platform to become the ‘best place’ for content creators to make money online.
He said: ‘At the end of the day, if you’re a creator, you’re a business. And a great way to establish some sustainable and predictable income is subscriptions.’
‘This is just one step on a much larger nger pathe journey to provide creators everywhere with a whole range of tools to be able to make a living online. But we’re really exited about this one.’
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