World-popular photo sharing app Instagram has officially launched ‘Instagram Subscriptions’, which they are currently trialling with just 10 creators in the hope that they will be able to rollout the service to all users in the near future, in order to create a rival to market leader OnlyFans.
According to TechCrunch, the creators who are currently being used in the trial are:
Actor & influencer @alanchikinchow; basketball player @sedona._; astrologer @alizakelly; dancer/actress/model @kelseylynncook; digital creator @elliottnorris; Olympian @jordanchiles; gymnast & creator @jackjerry; spiritual coach & artist @bunnymichael; XR creator @donalleniii; and digital creator @lonnieiiv.
As part of Instagram’s new subscription service, creators will be able to charge a fee of between $0.99 and $99.99 per month, in return for offering subscriber access to private stories and private live features, whilst subscribers will also get a special badge by their name that will help them to stand out in comments sections and in their inbox, so that creators can prioritise their subscribers with better interaction.
Meanwhile, creators will also get access to the email addresses of their subscribers so that they can interact better away from the platform too, although it’s not clear whether subscribers would actually want to be contacted via email as it’s quite possible that this sort of communication from creators is likely to be more like a mailing list than any kind of intimate communication.
Another notable feature of Instagram Subscriptions is that they won’t be taking a cut from the subscription fees, with creators receiving 100% of the money they make from subscribers – compared with the 80% creators receive on OnlyFans and other similar platforms such as AdmireMe.
At this stage it isn’t clear whether Instagram will relax their policy on adult content when it comes to Instagram Subscriptions. On one hand, any sensitive content would be behind a paywall so it wouldn’t be visible to the wrong audience, however on the other hand Instagram (and Meta in general), have always taken a strict stance against adult content and it is quite likely thay they won’t want to be associated with it at all.
So will Instagram Subscriptions ever rival or even replace OnlyFans or similar platforms? We believe not, as the best places for adult content creators to share XXX content will most likely always be the platforms that were set up for that reason specifically, with near zero restrictions.
However could Instagram Subscriptions severely put a dent in OnlyFans’ market dominance when it comes to allowing content creators in general to monetise their content? Quite probably, as a lot of the non-adult creators that use OnlyFans at present (such as cooks and fitness trainers), might prefer to take their business to Instagram? Time will tell once Instagram rolls out subscriptions to a wider user-base!
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