The next big trend in consumer tech is subscriptions and paid memberships. Twitter Blue is just the beginning.

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A new revenue stream, recurring revenue -- all sounds great, but the biggest benefit of paid memberships is more user engagement. HOW the membership system is designed matters, and its all about creating incentives

One of China Internet's best kept secrets is how to design paid memberships that work -- they've experimented with this for 20+ yrs. Check out Weibo VIP Membership revenue ($124M in 2020), this is China's Twitter.

What are frameworks for membership design?
1. Mix of paid and earned perks
2. Leveling to unlock more features
3. Function + flexing / self expression
4. Partnership unlocks

Let's dig into each one.

1. Mix of earned + paid perks -- if everything is just paid for, then you begin to have the haves and have nots (or as @elonmusk puts it -- the lords and peasants). A mixture of earned features keeps the system balanced

2. Levels of membership -- Let users unlock more features with more engagement OR more expertise (this helps decrease spam/scams). Instead of offering basic vs. premium, try offering monthly vs. annual and reserve some features just for annual

3. Function vs. flexing -- Beautiful membership programs are a mix of utility and giving users ways to stand out and show off. It's human nature to seek social status, and when the status is earned it's even easier to accept

4. Partnership unlocks -- Imagine if non-competitive Internet giants bundled their memberships together with a discount (e.g. buy Twitter Blue and Spotify Premium at 30% off!). This both increases stickiness and distribution.

China platforms have figured out so many creative membership features. My favorites are the ability to pin 2 posts to the top of your feed and the ability to anonymously follow accounts. Lots of inspiration to take from this list from Weibo alone

Membership design is basic human psychology and incentives.

Check out the universal frameworks here: a16z.com/2022/11/02/how-to-build-a-winning-paid-membership-program/