The company has teamed with Amazon, Walmart, and Target to offer Snapchat+ gift cards in stores and online. Which, if last year was anything to go by, will help boost Snapchat+ subscriptions once again this Christmas. Here's Snap:

"As the holiday season approaches, annual Snapchat+ subscriptions are now available to purchase in-store across the US at Target, as well as online and through Amazon and Walmart. Gift cards are easy to redeem immediately at snapchat.com/plus. With Snapchat+, Snapchatters can unlock so many fun ways to personalize their app with custom chat wallpapers, seasonal app icons, Bitmoji pets, and more! It's the gift that keeps on giving all year long."

And while those add-ons won't appeal to everyone, they have been a hit with millions of Snapchat users, and you can bet that many young teens will be keen to find a Snap gift card under the Christmas tree this year, so that they can customize their in-app presence like their friends.

Snapchat has taken the same approach this year by launching Snapchat+ gift cards exclusively via Amazon. And yet, even with one retail partner, that again witnessed Snapchat+ memberships rise from 5 million in September, to 7 million by end of Q4, meaning that its subscriber base rose by some 40% in the period.

I mean, that expansion wouldn't be entirely because of Snapchat+ gift cards, but they certainly played a significant role. As such, the expansion into physical stores and a hell of a lot more outlets ought to help Snap boost Snapchat+ memberships again this year.

Snapchat+, now at 12 million total members, is a convenient add-on revenue stream for the app, which continues to redefine its sources of revenue. Snapchat still gets more than 90% of its revenue from ads, so it's not a material stream overall. But as the company continues to invest in new technologies, like AR glasses, that extra money Snapchat+ is raising is a good complement to its ad business.

And what a great example of Snapchat's audience nous, and understanding of what its users actually want.

For comparison, X Premium, which was launched around the same time-and with much more fanfare-drowned at an astonishingly low 1.3 million sign-ups, seeing that users aren't taking a blue checkmark buy, as Elon and Co. had kinda hoped to tempt.

Because X's add-ons aren't particularly relevant to how most users interact with the app. Snapchat's add-ons for Snapchat+, on the other hand, are, which is why it's seeing much more take-up of its paid option.

And that looks set to continue to rise in 2025.

Again, it's unlikely to ever be a big revenue stream, in comparison to its ad business, but it's a valuable driver of supplemental income for the app.