creator economy
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Instagram is testing out paid creator subscriptions

The feature is currently only available for 10 U.S. creators.

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Instagram is pausing its plan for an app for tweens.
Image: Instagram

Instagram is trying out a new way for creators to get paid. Following in the footsteps of Twitter's nascent "Super Follow" feature, Instagram is testing creator subscriptions, allowing a select few to offer followers paid access to exclusive content.

The feature is currently only available for 10 U.S. creators, each of which has more than 50,000 followers. Price points for exclusive content start at 99 cents and go as high as $99.99. Subscribers will have access to content such as Instagram stories, highlights and live videos.

Instagram said there is currently no way to prevent exclusive content from being screenshotted, TechCrunch reported, but the social media company is working on technology to prevent that for later iterations of the program.

"This will help creators earn more by offering benefits to their more engaged followers like access to exclusive Lives and Stories," Mark Zuckerberg, head of Instagram parent company Meta, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday. "I'm excited to keep building tools for creators to make a living doing creative work and to put these tools in more creators' hands soon."

The concept of monetizing subscriptions for content creators isn't new. Youtube has long allowed users to monetize by placing ads in videos once they reach 1,000 subscribers, and Facebook launched its own subscription program in June 2020. Instagram hopping on the trend is another signal that social media companies are betting big on the booming creator economy.

Nat Rubio-Licht

Nat Rubio-Licht is a Los Angeles-based news writer at Protocol. They graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in newspaper and online journalism in May 2020. Prior to joining the team, they worked at the Los Angeles Business Journal as a technology and aerospace reporter.

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