Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge
There are now 1 million paid subscriptions to creators on Instagram, slowly transforming the platform into a space where creators can get paid directly by their fans. It’s a big milestone but a small number for Instagram: the service has around 2 billion monthly users. Patreon, meanwhile, is estimated to have more than 30 million paid subscriptions — albeit with about a decade’s head start.
Meta announced the milestone today alongside some other news related to creators getting paid. The company is going to start promoting subscriptions in Instagram’s feed, putting a big “Subscribe” button at the top of every post so that non-paying followers know it’s available. Creators will be able to offer 30-day free trials, and Instagram is adding…
