Snap Inc. has attracted more than 3 million users to its Snapchat subscription service, a $3.99 a month option that offered early access to features like its new artificial intelligence chatbot.
Disney Is set to eliminate thousands of jobs starting next week.
The company has exceeded its expectations and includes the addition of about a million paying users in the past 11 weeks, Snap said at its annual partner summit, held in its home of Santa Monica, California. The service was launched in 2015 but was boosted by a boost in February when the company added exclusive access to a chatbot, called My AI, powered by OpenAI's GPT technology.
Also from Snapchat's event, Snapchat also adds Mirror tool for large-scale augmented reality.
What we actually see is that when we release new features, that gets more people excited about signing up or trying Snapchat, we definitely saw some nice momentum with My AI. Spiegel said he wants Snapchat to reach 10 million users by the end of the year. The progress so far suggests Snapchat is making headway in a challenging area for social media companies: getting users to pay.
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has faced challenges attracting subscribers to the company's Blue service. The Snapchat service is available through Verizon Communications Inc.'s play platform. With the subscription, users can personalize the look and feel of the app as well as the AI features.
Snapchat, like other social media companies, is aiming to counter a decline in ad revenue. The company's overall sales growth stalled at the end of last year, and revenue is expected to drop in the first half of 2023.
Snap is tackling the crisis by cutting jobs and culling projects that are no longer seen as a priority. The move means refocusing on initiatives that increase user numbers and revenue, as well as augmented reality technology.
Snapchat was launched in June, and it has been available to several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, the US, UK, Germany and the United Arab Emirates. Even with the recent expansion, Snapchat still remains a small part of Snap's revenue - and its user base.
At about $4 per month, 3 million users would generate less than $150 million. Snapchat had a revenue of $4.6 billion and has 750 million users.
The company also considers ways to make money from its users. Now, all Snapchat users aged 18 or older can post stories publicly, allowing users to see the content they post anonymously. The app was built to make it simpler for people to become creators and amass followers. To lure more of those types of users, Snap said it will give select creators a cut of revenue if ads run between their Stories posts.
No one are utilizing AI for therapy, even though ChatGPT was not built for it.