Snapchat’s premium subscription is showing no signs of slowing growth as it comes off its best month ever, in terms of in-app revenue, new data indicates. As it turns out, many of Snapchat’s younger users are willing to pay for the perks of Snapchat+, which offers tools to enhance stories, pin a Best Friend and change the app icon, as well as gain early access to new features, including new AI features, and much more. In November, the subscription offering topped $20 million in net revenue (after app store fees) for the first time, while subscription revenue rose by double digits in almost every country where Snapchat+ is live.
That puts Snapchat+ far ahead of X Premium, the subscription product formerly known as Twitter Blue. In November, X saw its highest month of in-app revenue purchase to date with $6.2 million in consumer spending, but it was still less than a third of what Snapchat+ is bringing in.
Image Credits: Apptopia
These findings, which come from app intelligence provider Apptopia, follow Snap’s announcement in September that its subscription offering had reached a milestone of over 5 million subscribers. That was up from 4 million in late June and 3 million in mid-April. Demand for the product had shown no signs of slowing, especially as the company introduced more early access features, including Snap’s latest AI products, like its My AI chatbot which rolled out to subscribers first, and expanded access to a generative AI selfie feature called Dreams. The My AI chatbot has been used to send over 20 billion messages, Snap announced during its Q3 earnings.
As a result, Snapchat+ is continuing to add subscribers for its now more-than-a-year-old subscription. Notes Apptopia, the subscription pulled in a total of more than $31 million in consumer spending before app store commissions, and was up 23.4% month-over-month, compared with October. While this wasn’t the largest-ever monthly increase as a percentage, it was the second-largest in terms of absolute revenue growth.
The top markets fueling the subscription’s consumer spending include the U.S., U.K., France, Australia and Canada. The U.S.’s net revenue led the month in November, growing from $1.3 million to $1.8 million. This was followed by the U.K. ($1.6 million net), France ($1.2 million net), Australia ($1 million net), and Canada ($960,000 net). Or, more simply put, the top 4 countries generated north of $1 million in revenue each for the Snapchat+ subscription.
Plus, the subscription is finding traction in unexpected areas as well, Apptopia found. For example, Saudi Arabia is the No. 7 market by consumer spending — something that isn’t common.
What’s more, this data doesn’t even offer the full picture for Snapchat+, as the company has made it possible for U.S. users to pay for a Snapchat+ subscription via gift cards sold on Amazon. Because those purchases are taking place outside the app stores, a third party like Apptopia wouldn’t be able to track that spending. That means Snapchat+’s revenue may be even higher than the firm’s estimates.
techcrunch.com
