Does Anyone Still Pay for Snapchat's Premium Subscription?

Ariel Ariel
3/17/23

This is a single insight from This Week in Apps - All About the Money!. Check out the full article for more insights.


Another fairly recent subscription I've been keeping an eye on is Snapchat+, which I called a paid beta when it first launched last July.

The launch surprised me, and with nearly $6M in net revenue from the App Store, I was surprised by how much people are willing to spend to beta test an app. Retention wasn't amazing in month two, which aligns with what I thought - people were curious and the subscription cost wasn't high enough to prevent them from trying it out.

But growth since has been pretty healthy that it's safe to say it's working.

Let's look at the numbers.

Snapchat's month two of revenue, which I take as a better starting point to measure growth because it doesn't include the hype, totaled $4.4M from the App Store, according to our revenue estimates. And that's net, meaning what Snap gets to keep after Apple takes its share.

It's been on the rise since.

Snapchat+ earned $5.6M of net revenue from the App Store by the end of 2022, a 27% increase from August. Since December, net revenue rose another 21%, ending February with $6.8M, according to our estimates.

I expect revenue to continue at this rate for much of 2023, making Snapchat+ a decent revenue stream for Snap. It won't compete with its ad revenue, which rose to $4.6B in 2022, but still has a lot of room for growth. Especially if it can become more useful.

Snapchat+ and Twitter Blue are very similar in that they go after a user base that isn't used to paying, don't offer too much that's exciting, but are growing at a healthy pace. The only missing ingredient here is better features and that growth can 10x overnight. They have the users.

App Intelligence for Everyone!

The insights in this report come right out of our App Intelligence platform, which offers access to download and revenue estimates, installed SDKs, and more! Learn more about the tools or schedule a demo with our team to get started.

Are you a Journalist? You can get access to our app and market intelligence for free through the Appfigures for Journalists program. Contact us for more details.

All figures included in this report are estimated. Unless specified otherwise, estimated revenue is always net, meaning it's the amount the developer earned after Apple and Google took their fee.

Tagged: #social-media

Related Resources

Did Netflix Find a New Downloads Growth Hack?
Insights
Did Netflix Find a New Downloads Growth Hack?

Netflix pulled a Peacock move last week by getting into live sports - specifically, boxing, a sport not streamed by many...

TikTokers Screaming At Chickens Sent An Unlikely Game to #1 - The Most Downloaded Games in the World
Insights
TikTokers Screaming At Chickens Sent An Unlikely Game to #1 - The Most Downloaded Games in the World

How are the top mobile games in terms of scooping up new players doing? It's time to check out the latest monthly top 10...