Snapchat brings paid subscription service to India amid layoffs, poor growth

The Snapchat+ arrives in India at a time when WhatsApp is also poised to launch seven new features with the upcoming update.

“India is an important market for snap and investments in localizing the app experience have been key to our growth in the region. We are very excited about bringing exclusive, experimental and pre-release features to our Indian Snapchatter community who are eager to try out our new products and features,” said Lakshya Malu, Interim-Market Development Lead, Snap.

Snapchat announced Snapchat+ in June, a collection of exclusive, experimental and pre-release features available on the platform for $3.99 per month.

It was then available in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

“We’ve always enjoyed creating new features for our community, and historically we’ve tested new features in different ways and rolled out to different Snapchatters and geographies,” the company said in a statement.

“This subscription allows us to deliver new Snapchat features to some of the most passionate unity members and allows us to provide priority support,” it added.

The company claims that more than 332 million people worldwide use Snapchat on a daily basis. In India, it has over 100 million monthly active users.

Not only Snapchat, but several other popular apps started offering paid subscription services after that Apples introduced a privacy feature with iOS 14.5 that allows users to disable ad tracking for apps.

Instant messaging platform Telegram‘s founder and CEO Pavel Durov recently confirmed that a subscription-based offering called ‘Telegram Premiumcoming later this month.

Meanwhile, it emerged that Snap was planning to lay off employees and was in the early stages of planning layoffs.

The Verge reported earlier this week that the job cuts at Snap come after the company released disastrous quarterly Q2 results amid bleak forecasts for the future.

“It’s currently unclear how many of Snap’s more than 6,000 employees will be laid off as executives across the company are still planning the full scope of the cutbacks for their teams,” the report claimed.

Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, lost nearly $10 billion and its shares hit a new 52-week low last month on disappointing quarterly results.

The company reported a net loss of $422 million, compared to $152 million in the prior year as it “significantly” reduced hiring.

Snap had announced earlier this year that it was delaying recruitment.

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