Meta Tests Instagram Subscription That Offers Exclusive Features

Meta is testing a premium subscription on Instagram that offers access to exclusive features, TechCrunch reported Monday (March 30), citing an email from the company.

The Instagram Plus subscription is being tested in Mexico, Japan and the Philippines, and possibly other countries, the report said, citing information from users.

Meta told the publication that the company will continue testing the subscription before expanding it to additional countries.

The subscription’s exclusive features include the ability to view a Story without the poster knowing the subscriber viewed it; the ability to see how many people rewatched the subscriber’s own Stories; the ability to customize who sees each Story; and the ability to increase the visibility of the subscriber’s Stories, the report said, citing Meta.

Bloomberg also reported on Meta’s tests Monday, adding that the firm is looking to discover which features are most valuable to Instagram users.

The report said that the company has offered subscriptions of different types in the past and currently offers one that enables users to support content creators.

Meta said in September that it was rolling out a new option in the United Kingdom that offers Instagram and Facebook users the option to subscribe to gain an ad-free experience.

The company said it would continue to offer free access to the two social media platforms, with ads, and would still allow these users to control their ad experience with the tools that were available at the time.

“Subscriptions, as an alternative to seeing personalized advertising, is a well-established and economically viable business model spanning many industries, from news publishing and gaming to music and entertainment,” Meta said in a September press release.

Another social media platform, Snapchat, said in February that it was introducing a subscription program to help creators boost revenues.

This subscription offering lets fans access exclusives such as subscriber-only Snaps and Stories, as well as priority replies to a creator’s public Stories and an “ad-free experience.”

For creators, the Snapchat program offers “the freedom to experiment, reward their biggest supporters, and build a recurring income stream on Snapchat that grows with their audience,” as well as a new and “sustainable source of revenue on top of existing monetization options.”