Subscription option on instagram will not contribute to the content quality

Meta Company has just introduced a new feature that allow users to subscribe to the content of selected Instagram content creators. Subscription options is related to Instagram story format in which authors will create unique content only for subscribers. During the test period, this option will only be available to a limited number of American creators, but it is expected to be expanded to more content creators in the upcoming months. Through our latest Vox Populi research we have focused on this topic to see what benefits will this option bring. Considering that more than half of the research participants don’t like trying new Instagram functionalities, it’s not surprising that they have not even heard of the news about the launch of Instagram stories subscription option. In fact, respondents are almost unified in their opposition to the idea of creating a subscription on Instagram. The same percentage, 94%, believe that the subscription option will not attract new users to the app.

SUBSCRIPTION TARIFFS THAT ARE ACCEPTABLE

Successful Instagram content creators invest a lot of time and effort in creating their feeds as attractive as possible, and for many of them, it is a daily job for which they expect to be properly paid. When it comes to additional ways for content creators to earn money through the subscription option, majority of Vox Populi participants (85%) claim they would not pay for Instagram content creators’ content. The same number of respondents believe that creators will not create better content that would be worth the money. The subscription amount proposed by the platform itself varies from $ 0.99 to $ 99 and most respondents, 95% of them, would agree to pay the minimum subscription amount if they choose to do so.

ARE CONTENT CREATORS PAID ENOUGH?

To earn money this way, content creators should be as innovative as possible and follow trends. The goal of social networks is to keep users in their environment for as long as possible, and content creators have a big role in that. However, two-thirds of participants in the research believe that the creators are already well paid. 57% of them also believe that paying for content will not help content creators to earn more money. Also, 67% of respondents think that the subscription will lower the number of content creators’ followers.

WE RATHER SUBSCRIBE TO EDUCATINAL CONTENT

To see if the type of content plays a role in deciding whether participants would subscribe to content posted by content creators on Instagram, we explored how many respondents would agree to pay subscription fee for educational content and how much for fun. 29% of respondents chose entertaining content, while 71% chose educational content.  Despite of the fact that educational content on social media is not as popular as entertainment, the results  indicate that audience is more willing to invest in a subscription for education and content that can be used for personal growth, development, and learning. Based on these results, it will be interesting to see if the share of educational content on social media will grow during the test period and if content creators will create some new content formats to fulfil their followers’ needs. Instagram platform too could make money with this new functionality, but our respondents are divided on the issue (48% agrees, while 52% disagrees with this fact).

The Instagram subscription option is still in the testing process and is not certain that it will come to life in this form. Also, it is too early to say if and when any subscription option will come to life in our area. Despite the fact that 9% of Vox Populi poll participants subscribe to content on other platforms, it is clear that they are critical about the option to subscribe to content on Instagram in this way and feel it will not improve the quality of content on the platform, at least for now.