Social networks are going paywall

Twitter, Meta and others are fighting the mid-life crisis by asking users for money. Even TikTok – the best-performing social network right now – has launched a paid subscription. Here's why.

The wave of change had already been felt some time ago, but on platforms that are not the leading ones. For instance, in June 2022, Snapchat launched its “plus” version. This provides users with additional features for $4 per month. Such as changing the app icon, finding out who has watched our stories more than once, unlocking special badges, and so on.

In the meantime, Telegram has announced its “premium” version, which allows you to send larger files than the basic version, merge different chats within a specific folder, and more. 

In short, social and messaging platforms – two sectors we can hardly distinguish today – have timidly begun to look for new forms of profit by directly targeting those who, until now, had always been kept out of pocket: users.

The idea has now spread to popular social networks. For more than a year they have been grappling with restrictions imposed by Apple, which by default via iPhone prevents platforms from tracking users’ online behavior for advertising purposes. This has resulted in a huge reduction in accuracy and thus the chances of making money through advertisements.

Twitter, which has always dealt with difficult financial reports, followed the same course by first introducing the paid “Blue” feature. At a minimum cost of $8 per month, it allows people to have access to the blue checkmark next to their name, enjoy greater visibility, take advantage of two-factor verification via SMS, edit tweets, take advantage of NFTs to personalize their profile picture, and more.

In recent weeks Meta has decided to take the plunge as well. In fact, it launched the still-in-trial Meta Verified on February 19. At a minimum cost of $12, users can get the blue verification badge, count on more effective customer service, greater protection from identity theft, and most importantly (as also on Twitter) see their posts rewarded by the algorithm – the real added value they are banking on to attract other users, especially aspiring creators. 

However, another social network that is anything but in crisis has decided to give up its completely free status. The social network that – despite being constantly under threat of being banned by Western authorities (but that is another matter) – has had the most meteoric growth in social network history, surpassing 1 billion users very quickly and keeping its users glued for almost twice as long as Instagram (52 minutes a day versus 28): TikTok.

As little as TikTok has to do with the difficulties of Meta and Twitter, the China-based Bytedance’s platform has decided to launch a paid subscription too. More specifically, TikTok has introduced the feature of posting videos lasting up to 20 minutes. However, these videos can only be accessed by users willing to pay the creators an amount ranging from $1 up to $190. 

@tiktoklive_creator Welcome to LIVE #subscription! Join today to get rewards and share access with your creator community! #LIVESubs #TikTokLIVE#Subscription ♬ original sound - TikTok LIVE Creator

A sort of paywall for social networks, in short. TikTok does not aim at new sources of income, but at finding new solutions to meet the economic expectations of creators. In fact, they have repeatedly complained about the low-income possibilities that TikTok offers compared to YouTube. In this case, TikTok wants to keep alive the competition with the platform that – through youtubers – has led the way as far as the world of creators is concerned.

Despite appearances, the simple fact that TikTok competes more with YouTube than with Instagram or Twitter says a lot about its potential as a social network. In fact, like and even more than YouTube, TikTok is a kind of highly accelerated smartphone-sized mini-television, where the vast majority of users simply watch videos by professional or aspiring creators, without ever creating their own content.

This social network thus features very little of both “social” and “network”. Indeed, what this makes extremely clear is how much the new frontier of these platforms is in many ways a throwback. A return to a broadcast model – from the few to the many – like the traditional model of radio or television.

The format offered by TikTok and its success show just how much and why Facebook and by now even Instagram are aging badly. In short, few users still seem to be interested in listening to their great-uncle’s political views, seeing photos of old classmates’ weddings or vacation videos of perfect strangers. That wave, by now, has worn off.

Euphoria, HBO

This is confirmed by the fact that Facebook and Instagram are not only facing economic difficulties, but also and especially user engagement difficulties. Users are posting less contents and use them to interact every day less. Just think that from 2019 to now, the rate of user interaction with Instagram posts (i.e., through likes, comments, etc.) has dropped by an impressive 44%. It is worth specifying that this meltdown has probably been caused by the introduction of Reels as well – Instagram’s attempt to respond to TikTok videos – whose views, however, have themselves dropped by 20% in recent months and whose performance, more generally, is not meeting expectations.

At a time when users seem to only want to passively watch videos on TikTok, how do we push them to greater participation and engagement on traditional social networks? A countermeasure – so drastic as to seem almost desperate – may have been spotted by LinkedIn. A couple of weeks ago, it began to share “AI-powered conversation starters” on its platform.

Essentially, LinkedIn has come up with the idea of using AI to create content encouraging users to share questions and insights. It did so to cope with declining engagement from users, who are probably tired of congratulating someone on their new job and very little more. The questions that can stimulate debates include: “how do you build your voice on social networks?” or “what are a leader’s best skills?”. In short, those classic LinkedIn discussions that – evidently – fewer and fewer users are brave enough to ask. Simply put, AI – which is already playing a crucial role in selecting what we see on social networks – may stimulate our engagement in every way in the future too.

It is precisely the choice made by LinkedIn that shows how much traditional social networks are struggling with the start of a new era. An era in which the most successful platforms are small televisions, while discussions and content sharing moves from the public square of social networks to the private groups of WhatsApp or Telegram. Given the first real difficulties, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and the others have no choice but to try a forced path: finding new ways to squeeze more and more out of users, whether it is their finances or their attention.

Opening image: Elon Musk, photo by dmoberhaus on Flickr

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