India’s own micro-blogging platform and Twitter rival Koo on Thursday launched Koo Premium, which will be providing creators with the opportunity to monetise their content and engage with fans. With Koo Premium, creators will have the option to offer exclusive content to their subscribers but they will have to pay a weekly or monthly subscription fee. Creators will be able to label their content including text, videos and photos and post it for their subscribers. They can also customize their subscription offers, set their own prices, and have complete control over their subscription content, the company said.
The paid service is currently available in India and Koo had been testing this feature for the past month with over 20 creators in the country. In the coming months, Koo plans to onboard verified profiles such as journalists, Bollywood actors and cricketers on Koo Premium to interact with their subscribers.
“Koo is one of the most inclusive social platforms and we pride ourselves on being fair to everyone who plays a role in making Koo what it is today. We want our success to be shared with those that have the greatest role in making Koo a truly inclusive platform - our creators. Creators form the backbone of any social platform. Koo Premium is the first of many programs we are launching to democratize content creation and enable creators from across the country to monetize their content and build a sustainable income stream from their passion," Aprameya Radhakrishna, CEO and Co-Founder, Koo, said in a statement.
Elon Musk recently announced that the original micro-blogging site, Twitter will start paying content creators for the advertisements displayed in their replies with the first block payment of $5 million. He also said that the creator must be verified and only ads served to verified users count.
Facebook parent has also recently launched Meta Verified in India. The social networking giant announced that Meta Verified is a new subscription bundle that includes account verification with a government ID, impersonation protections and account support. Meta Verified is a paid verification system, which is similar to what Elon Musk did with Twitter Blue. The Mark Zuckerberg-owned company further announced it would retain the verified badge for accounts that were verified before the introduction of Meta Verified.