This Subscription Weekly edition covers the new Amazon Access discount hub, Telegram pricing discount in India, and YouTube’s attempt to push its premium tier to watch 4K videos. A new WEX launches a digital wallet for small and medium-sized businesses. Mastercard partners with Inswitch to offer payment solutions in Latin America, and SWIFT continues improving cross-border payment interoperability.

Amazon rebrands discounted membership with Amazon Access hub

This Monday, the retailer unveiled a hub where customers can find information on Prime Access, Amazon Layaway, SNAP EBT, and discounts. Amazon Access’ rollout comes as subscribers seek special offers in response to inflation woes and the brand push to make Prime benefits more accessible to a broader audience. Learn more on Retail Dive. 

With the holidays approaching, retailers are pushing discounted offers to attract and retain more subscribers. This year, nearly 70 percent of consumers want to give and receive gift subscriptions. 

Telegram cuts subscription fees in India

India is one of the largest markets for Telegram, amassing over 120 million monthly active users. After a couple of months of launching, Telegram has cut its premium tier subscription fee by more than half in the Indian market. The monthly subscription now costs customers 179 Indian rupees ($2.2). The app’s monthly subscription costs $4.99 to $6 in every other market. Learn more on TechCrunch.

YouTube asks some users to purchase a Premium subscription to watch in 4K

YouTube’s paid subscription offers benefits like ad-free viewing, video downloads, and background plays. However, users noted that the platform had asked them to upgrade to the premium tier to watch videos in 4K–a feature available for all users. It’s still unclear if this is a limited test or if the company is considering charging for this service. Learn more on TechCrunch.

WEX launches digital wallet for B2B payments

Last Thursday, commerce platform WEX introduced Flume, a digital wallet for instant account-to-account transfers, designed. During its beta period, Flume managed more than $2 million in small business payments, stating is up to 20-times cheaper than bank transfers. Learn more on PYMNTS.

Mastercard and Inswitch to expand digital payment in LATAM

Mastercard has partnered with Inswitch to offer payment solutions across Latin America and the Caribbean. Its APIs let businesses create and manage digital wallets, accept local and global payments, issue cards, offer customer financing, and implement compliance solutions in 30 countries across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. Learn more in Insider Intelligence.

Has SWIFT beaten crypto on cross-border payments interoperability?

The financial messaging service, claims it has solved “the significant challenge of interoperability in cross-border transactions by bridging between different distributed ledger technology (DLT) networks and existing payment systems, allowing digital currencies and assets to flow smoothly alongside, and interact with, their traditional counterparts.” Learn more on PYMNTS.

Join Recurly at these exciting events:

  • 5 strategies to chop subscriber churn by 73%. Join us next October 12, 2022, to learn how to defeat the “revenue eaters” stealing your business. Save your spot. 

  • Let’s meet at Subscription Show in November! Defeat growth blockers and find better ways to accelerate revenue potential. We’ll discuss it over a coffee; book your time. 

  • Processing payments in Croatia. Starting January 1st, 2023, all payments processed in Croatia must be in EU currency, not Croatian Kuna.

  • EMEA Subscription breakfast series. We had the chance to connect with Recurly’s customers and discuss how industry leaders drive subscription growth over a delicious breakfast in London. We had a blast!

From the Recurly blog: