After starting small, Instagram is expanding its trial subscription service for creators and influencers. Not only that, Instagram also brings several new features to help creators and influencers earn money.
Subscription is a subscription service where followers can pay a monthly fee to access exclusive content uploaded by creators or influencers on Instagram.
When the subscription service was first tested, only 10 creators were involved, including gymnast Jordan Chiles and astrologer Aliza Kelly. The alpha trial only supports features like stories, badges, and exclusive livestreams for subscribers.
Now, according to Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri, the trial has been extended to tens of thousands of creators and subscriber-only features will be expanded.
The new features announced by Mosseri are group chat, reels, and exclusive posts for subscribers, as well as a special tab on the profile that subscribers can access to view paid content.
A significant new feature is of course the option to upload posts in a feed that only subscribers can see. According to Mosseri, this feature was released because it is one of the most requested by creators.
Followers who want to be closer to their dream creators can also subscribe to access subscriber-only group chats via direct messages (DM). This group chat can be filled by 30 members and the chat content will disappear after 24 hours.
New feature of Instagram Subscription Photo: Doc. Instagram
Although the coverage is getting wider, currently subscription services are only available in the United States. But Mosseri realized that Instagram needed to bring the service to more countries.
"This is just one step on a longer road to providing content creators everywhere with the tools to make a living online," Mosseri said in a video posted on Instagram, as quoted by The Verge, Monday (18/7/2022). ).
Instagram users who want to subscribe and become subscribers to their favorite creators can pay USD 0.99 to USD 99.99 per month. For now, Meta as Instagram's parent will not take a commission from the income earned by creators through this program.
Apart from subscriptions, Instagram is also developing many features for general users. One of them is the new feed display with a fuller screen, ala TikTok feed.
Mosseri said the new feed will be rolled out to users in the next few months. Because Instagram is still fiddling with this feature after getting feedback from users, especially photographers.