Snap said today that its Snapchat+ paid plan has more than 3 million users. At its Snap Partner Summit event, the company added that in the coming days, Verizon users will have the option to buy Snapchat+ subscriptions through the carrier’s subscription store called +play.
The company launched the paid tier last June and expanded to multiple regions in the following months. Snap reached the 1 million subscriber mark last August and the 2 million subscriber mark in February indicating steady growth.
And yet, 3 million subscribers still represent less than 1% of the 375 million daily active users on the platform.
Snapchat has added a number of new features in the past few months like custom notification sounds, story expiration controls, customizable chat wallpapers and a plan gifting option. It has also promised that it will allow paid users to freeze their Snap Streaks.
The company has additionally focused on bringing generative AI features to subscribers. In February, it launched My AI chatbot for Snapchat+ users. Following complaints about the bot posting inappropriate responses, the company announced new safety tools around the AI bot earlier this month. In the past few weeks, Snap has also introduced a feature that lets subscribers generate a background through text prompts.
As the company is making My AI bot available to all Snapchat users, it said that Snapchat+ users will later this year gain a feature where the bot will reply to them with a visual Snap — essentially generating an image based on the conversation.
The company has earned $80 million through in-app purchases — this figure also includes an estimated $1 million on other purchases like filters — since the launch of Snapchat+, according to Abe Yousef, senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower. Yousef noted that 57% of Snapchat+ subscribers are based out of the U.S., 10% of them are from the U.K. and 5% each from Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada.
For comparison, Snap posted an annual revenue of $4.6 billion in 2022. So, at the moment, subscriptions represent a fraction of the company’s earnings.
With the addition of Snapchat+ to Verizon’s +play store, Verizon customers will get three months of the subscription service for free when they sign up. Snap’s service is the first of its kind on +play, which largely focuses on streaming service subscriptions. The store now offers services from over 30 other partners across streaming, entertainment, lifestyle and education services.
+play is available to all Verizon mobile, 5G Home and LTE Home Internet customers.
