Snap Attracts 3 Million Paying Customers With Ai-Enhanced Service

Snap Inc. has attracted over 3 million customers to its Snapchat+ subscription service, which costs $3.99 per month and gives users early access to features such as its new artificial intelligence chatbot.

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Snap said Wednesday at its annual partner conference in Santa Monica, California, that the company's growth has exceeded its projections and that it has added roughly a million paying customers in the last 11 weeks. The service was established last year, but it received a boost in February when the business added exclusive access to My AI, a chatbot powered by OpenAI's GPT technology.

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Snap's stock rose as much as 3.3% after the announcement. They were up 23% year to date as of Tuesday's closing.

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"We never imagined we'd be able to grow to 3 million subscribers," Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said in an interview. "What we've found is that when we release new features, it gets more people interested in signing up for or trying Snapchat+." We saw some good traction with My AI."

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According to the data, Snap is making progress in a difficult area for social media companies: convincing users to pay. Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has struggled to recruit users for the company's Blue service. Meanwhile, Meta Platforms Inc. began testing a subscription package on Instagram and Facebook in February but has yet to publish paid user numbers.

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Customers may also access Snapchat+ via Verizon Communications Inc.'s +play platform. In addition to AI functions, the subscription allows users to personalize the app's appearance and feel.

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Snap, like its social media contemporaries, is attempting to compensate for a decline in ad revenue. Overall sales growth at the firm slowed towards the conclusion of last year, and revenue is likely to fall in the first half of 2023.

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Snap is dealing with the downturn by laying off employees and canceling initiatives that are no longer deemed important. This has necessitated an emphasis on attempts to boost user numbers and income, as well as augmented reality technologies. 

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Snap introduced Snapchat+ in June, making it available in a few countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates. Even with the recent increase, it remains a modest portion of Snap's earnings, and with a monthly user base of roughly $4, 3 million users would produce less than $150 million. Snap made $4.6 billion in sales last year and has 750 million users.

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