Instagram began testing paid subscriptions, the appearance of which the social network announced in November 2021. So far, the function is available to ten creators from the United States who will be the first to test the new possibility of monetizing pages on Instagram, TechCrunch reports .
Instagram considers this "alpha testing", designed to receive feedback from both the creators themselves and their audience, based on which the feature will be finalized and adjusted.
The list of testers included creators with different numbers of subscribers (from 62,000 to 571,000), including Olympic silver medalist, gymnast Jordan Chiles, TikTok star Lonnie IIV, actress and model Kelsey Cook, food blogger Elliott Norris and others.
The "Subscriptions" feature allows creators to set their own price for access to exclusive content. Instagram provides eight different options ranging from $0.99 to $99.99 per month.
“Our main goal is to help authors earn. We're trying to think of all the ways we can build monetization products where possible,” said Ashley Yuki, Co-Head of Instagram Products.
Paid content can be pinned stories (“Highlights”), as well as exclusive live broadcasts that allow subscribers to interact more closely with the creators. Subscription material will be marked with a special purple icon: it will also appear on subscribers to distinguish them from the general audience in comments or private messages.
Subscribing to content will be through an in-app purchase on the Instagram app for iOS and Android. When the function will become available to all users, including from Russia, is still unknown.
It is also not yet clear how possible leaks of exclusive content through screenshots will be regulated. According to TechCrunch, it is not yet possible to block screenshots at the initial stage of testing, but Instagram is working on a similar system.