New Delhi: Photo-sharing platform Snapchat on Wednesday launched its paid subscription service in India for Rs 49 per month, as it aims to increase revenue amid slowing growth and layoffs globally.
Subscribers in India will receive a Snapchat+ badge with a star designation for their profile.
Snapchat+ is coming to India at a time when WhatsApp is also set to launch seven new features with its upcoming update.
Snapchat in June announced Snapchat+, a collection of exclusive, experimental, and pre-release features available on the platform for $3.99 a month.
It was then available in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“We’ve always enjoyed creating new features for our community, and historically we’ve tested new features in different ways, rolling them out to different Snapchat and geographies,” the company said in a statement. Is.”
“This membership will allow us to deliver new Snapchat features to Unity prioritizing some of the most passionate members and allow us to prioritize support,” it added.
The company claims that more than 332 million people worldwide use Snapchat every day. In India, it has over 100 million monthly active users.
Not only Snapchat but many other popular apps have started paying subscription services after Apple introduced a privacy feature with iOS 14.5 that allows users to turn off ad tracking for apps.
Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of instant messaging platform Telegram, recently confirmed that a subscription-based offering called ‘Telegram Premium’ will be arriving later this month.
Meanwhile, reports emerged that Snap was ready to sack employees and was in the early stages of planning layoffs.
The Verge reported earlier this week that job cuts are taking place at Snap after the company posted disastrous quarterly results (Q2) amid poor future forecasts.
“It is not yet clear how many of Snap’s more than 6,000 employees will be laid off, as the company’s managers are still planning the full scope of cuts for their teams,” the report claimed.
Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, lost nearly $10 billion and its shares hit a 52-week low last month compared to disappointing quarterly results.
The company reported a net loss of $422 million compared to $152 million in the prior year as it reduced “significantly”.
Snap earlier this year announced a slowdown in hiring.