We have reached the first phase of LEO subscriptions.
The feature went live yesterday and now we are looking at where it can go. Like most things, starting out is the most important. With it released, now we can look further ahead.
At the moment subscriptions includes the ability to create private articles and Threads. These are posts that only your subscribers can see.
Next on the road map, according to what we were told, is subscriber only threadcasts. That is something that was stated that would not be all that complicated to get going. Hopefully we will see it shortly.
The other major piece is shorts. That is going to be a bit more difficult since it will require coordination with the 3Speak team.
The Evolution Of Subscriptions
Once all those features are live, consider what is being offered.
Most subscription services of this nature, i.e. Substack or Pateron, offer blogging (articles). To my knowledge, there is no option for microblogging nor can people post shorts (TikTok) style content.
This, to me, is a huge.
Content creators can engage in a variety of different ways with their subscribers. If we simply go through the list on here, we can see how there are a variety of ways for people to interact. That means that goes stretches without engaging with your audience should not occur.
Will this be the game changer as it is promoted?
The answer to that depends upon what one means. If the focus is upon users, the answer is no. We know how crypto people are. They are not willing to put in a great deal of effort. Instead, they want something for nothing. One of the biggest pastimes is scraping a few tokens either via upvotes or airdrops.
That means the target audience is different. Of course, those individuals might be outside crypto but they are serious content creators. That means the learning curve which we know how difficult it is to overcome.
More Tools
In addition to what we discussed, one of the key features that I think needs to be added is the ability to utilize outside crypto to pay for subscriptions. At a minimum, this means USDC or USDT.
Since there is the ability to swap these for HBD, that can serve as an on-ramp for content consumers who have some crypto experience yet are not affiliated with Hive.
If we consider the fact there is LeoDex, this builds in a centralized swap mechanism.
The key here is that outreach is required. Growth has to come from those who appeal outside of Hive. This might include some content creators who are in tune with some of the trends that are taking place.
Reverting back to the change, there is an angle that I think is important.
From a Hive perspective, this moves people away from the hunting of rewards. This was the system for so long and, quite frankly, truly the only way to monetize. With subscriptions, we are seeing a change in how things are evolving.
This has greater appeal to those who come from a business perspective. Having an assortment of tools which can be utilized for engagement will he key. Successful content creators who rake in money via their subscriptions tend to approach things from in a variety of ways.
We are at the starting point. It will be interesting to see what kind of creative ways people have to add value to their subscriptions.
