Daily Update: Snapchat tests ad-free model, TikTok ban overturned, Target launches its own Influencer program
Snapchat is the latest social platform to see if users will pay to not see ads, Montana's TikTok ban is unconstitutional, how should Creators approach working directly with a retailer?
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Snapchat is the latest platform to test ad-free subscription model
Increased privacy regulations in the EU are driving social platforms to try to monetize outside of paid advertising. Snapchat announced a new ‘ad-free subscription’ option, which starts at $16$15.99/month.
This is important for creators to keep an eye on. If a large enough contingency of people decide that paying to not see ads is worth it, it could have a few performance implications:
Paid boosting would no longer be an option for social content for users who are paying for ad-free experiences. This could potentially hurt creator performance.
Algorithms may change in response to the social media platform not needing ads to make money. This could potentially help creator performance as they could get more natural exposure in social feeds (and therefore wouldn’t need paid boosting).
It’s still a wait-and-see game, but with several platforms testing this type of model out (Meta in the EU, TwitterX, and soon to be TikTok), we all need to keep an eye on what happens.
US Judge blocks Montana’s attempt to ban TikTok
Montana’s governor signed legislation to ban TikTok in the state, which was set to begin on January 1. A judge just overturned that ban, thanks to a group of TikTokers and the company itself who argued that the ban violated the first amendment.
Judge Donald Molloy ruled that the legislation “oversteps state power” and does in fact violate the Constitution. More info from the article is below:
Molloy’s judgment is primarily centered on the fact that Montana has essentially sought to exercise foreign policy authority in enacting a TikTok ban, which is only enforceable by federal authorities.
Target becomes the latest retailer to launch their own Creator platform
The retailer’s efforts follow Amazon and Walmart, both of which have launched their own Creator programs, and both of which have yielded different results.
We’d expect Target’s experience to have similar performance to Walmart - they’re both retailers that a lot of people use, but still lag behind Amazon when it comes to ubiquitousness in everyday life.
Walmart has been ramping up efforts to court Creators, so we’d expect their program to keep growing.
One drawback with going direct: monitoring and managing your performance in different places.
This can be a huge pain!
If you’re debating going direct it may only be worth it for a couple of your top retailers, not every retailer under the sun that you see launching their own program. Going into different interfaces to see how you’re doing takes a lot of effort - and you’d still need to aggregate all of the information somewhere else to get the full view into how your business is doing.