Pay for “clean” information

Twitter has launched a Twitter Blue subscription plan that gives users a blue tick certificate and many other premium privileges.

According to The New York Times , Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, is considering offering ad-free versions of the two social networks to users in the European Union. It is not yet clear when Meta will start offering these versions, nor what fees will apply to subscribers who want to view ad-free content.

Previously, in June 2022, Snapchat began offering the paid service Snapchat Plus. Twitter (now X) followed suit in November 2022, and in February 2023, Meta began testing subscription packages for Facebook and Instagram. Twitter's monthly subscription price ranges from $3.99 to $14.99, with Snapchat charging $3.99, while Facebook and Instagram charge $11.99 to $14.99 depending on whether users purchase a subscription package via the web or IOS and Android operating systems. In Vietnam, YouTube began offering an ad-free Premium version with many services and utilities from April 2023, after previously offering it in many other markets.

Many social networks have begun charging different prices, and users are starting to pay more attention to these versions and the services that come with them. According to the Harvard Business Review , user expectations also vary on factors such as the quality of features, recognition of the value provided, satisfaction, and the ability to opt into paid subscription services.

The main benefit of the paid subscription model on these social media apps, described by the companies as verification, is to alleviate concerns about automated software applications and misinformation. The goal is to give the social media community a stronger foundation to distinguish between true and false information, while also better protecting users.

For a long time, the Internet was based on the principle of everything being free. As the Internet grew and companies realized that the value they created could not be accessed for free forever, subscription-based models grew exponentially. According to a Bloomberg report, “Subscriptions offer an attractive alternative to advertising revenue, but social media platforms have traditionally remained free as a way to incentivize user growth and engagement, and then charge for paid marketing posts.”

It is worth noting that many users are willing to pay to enjoy the benefits as advertised on social networks. Harvard Business Review has just published a survey of 1,056 Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and X users with the question: Based on their previous experience with free services, how do they generally rate the quality of paid services. With a score range of 1 - 10 corresponding to increasing levels of positive evaluation, the overall rating for these 4 social networks is from 7.25 - 7.38 points, in which Instagram users are the most optimistic. When asked about the ability to pay for subscription services, Snapchat users had the highest score of 7.27 compared to the remaining networks: Instagram (7.21 points), Facebook (7.16 points) and X (7.14 points). Users under 35 years old, college-educated users and politically conservative users all have higher expectations and are most likely to purchase paid services.

Instagram users include many social media influencers, artists and brands, as well as teens and people under 40. Meanwhile, three-quarters of Facebook users in the US are adults, and the over-40 crowd appears to be increasingly active on the platform over time. Most social media users are 35-65, while Snapchat users are predominantly 18-29 and predominantly female.

While most social media platforms, especially Twitter and Meta, are still in the early stages of paid services, subscription-based platforms like Patreon and Substack have proven to be successful in this area by creating a more personal experience between audiences and content creators. It is therefore no surprise that paid subscriptions are likely to be the new trend for social media platforms in the coming time. However, this comes with the need for platforms to further improve the quality of content, as well as user experience and ensure privacy.

Thai An

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