Instagram Plus suggests the future of social media is ads plus subscriptions, say experts

If you are a creator, a marketer, or a small business owner, there is a reasonable chance Instagram is already part of your work week. You are posting Stories, tracking reach, managing audience lists, monitoring competitors, and trying to make the algorithm work in your favour. Now, Instagram would like Rs 299 a month for some of those tools. Welcome to the next phase of social media, where the features that make the platform useful for professionals are starting to move behind a paywall. On June 5, Meta launched Instagram Plus , a paid subscription tier priced at $3.99 per month globally, Rs 299 per month in India, and €3.99 in the European Union. The free version of the app remains unchanged. But for anyone who uses Instagram as a business tool, the subscription introduces features that were either unavailable before or previously required third-party tools to replicate. This is not Meta's first subscription. The company already has Meta Verified, aimed at brands and agencies, which offers the verified blue badge, clickable links in Reels, and priority support. Instagram Creator Subscriptions allow eligible creators with at least 10,000 followers to gate content and charge their own audience for access. Instagram Plus is a different product. It targets individual power users, micro-businesses, and lifestyle creators, with tools built around Stories, profile management, and audience segmentation. A hedge, not a pivot There is a temptation to read this launch as a sign that Meta's advertising business is under pressure. It isn't, at least not yet. Meta posted $201 billion in total revenue in 2025, up 22% year-on-year, with advertising accounting for approximately $196 billion of that. Mark Zuckerberg has publicly stated that advertising will remain "by far, the most important driver of growth" for the foreseeable future. Kruthika Ravindran So this is...