Is social media worth paying for?

Is social media worth paying for? By Zoe Kleinman Technology editor I recently subscribed to Elon Musk's social network X, formerly Twitter. My friend questioned my decision, asking why I was giving money to the world's richest man. I did it for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to verify my account and get rid of fake profiles. Secondly, I wanted to access X's AI chatbot, Grok. I paid for it myself, and it wasn't a BBC expense. Some users don't like the idea of paying for a blue tick, which shows that you're a subscriber. I didn't expect much to change, but there are some improvements. I can write longer posts and edit them, and there are fewer ads. But now that I'm paying for the service, I get annoyed about the spam and bots. Johnny Ryan, a former advertising executive, says that advertisers are easier to please than subscribers. He says that advertisers don't care about the content, they just want to advertise. There's an old saying that if you're not paying for the product, you ARE the product. This means that if you're using something for free, the company is taking your data and selling it to advertisers. But tech firms are looking at subscriptions as an alternative. Meta introduced a subscription for Facebook and Instagram in Europe. It costs €13 per month on mobile devices. Snapchat Plus, which includes an ad-free option, got one million subscribers within a few weeks. YouTube's premium service, which offers ad-free streaming, reached 100 million users. James Hacking, founder of the media agency Socially Powerful, says that he needs an ad-free experience. Netflix launched a cheaper subscription deal that includes ads, and Amazon Prime introduced adverts to its video platform. Johnny Ryan argues that this hybrid model is the worst of both worlds. Azeem Azhar, founder of the tech-themed subscription newsletter Exponential View, says that subscriptions are part of the move from a market that's new and growing into a market that is saturated.

There are no new customers to get, so you need to figure out how you add revenue to your business. Social networks need to tread carefully, as they need free users to create content and engage with the platform. Perhaps this is a lesson X has already learned, as it gave free premium account status to all accounts with more than a million followers. This comes as many news platforms have successfully navigated a move to subscription funding. Substack, a platform that connects creators with an audience, claims more than three million people have subscribed to the numerous publications it hosts. Substack creators are not allowed to incorporate ads. Hamish McKenzie, founder of SubStack, says that the secret to a successful account is to be consistent and respect the audience's attention. He thinks that one day there will be a grand rivalry between social networks that take one overall subscription for all the content on them, and individual creator models such as Substack.

It's a much better world when the audience is the customer rather than the product. The tech industry is changing, and it's clear that subscriptions are becoming a popular way for companies to make money. But is it worth paying for social media? That's a question for each individual to answer.