Welcome back to Subscriptions Weekly! This week, we review Meta’s new subscription for European users and AppleTV’s struggle to engage with subscribers–despite its impressive market share. We talk about ChatGPT’s high subscription demand and the growing trend of restaurant memberships in the U.S.

Ad-free Instagram and Facebook are here

Meta is starting to prompt users to sign up for the paid “no ads” version of Facebook and Instagram launching in Europe. It’s rolling out as Meta responds to new EU privacy regulations by positioning the use of its services with targeted ads as a choice by users. The subscription fee is €9.99 per month when purchased online or €12.99 per month if purchased through Google’s or Apple’s app stores. Learn more on The Verge.

Apple’s streaming strategy boosts demand, but subscriber engagement is a struggle

Apple TV+ has made a notable impact, capturing 8.3% of the demand for streaming shows in the U.S. market in Q3—remarkable considering that its originals constitute just 2.1% of the total number of streaming originals. However, despite the strong performance of Apple TV+ releases, the service faces challenges in maintaining subscriber interest over time due to its limited catalog. Read more on Yahoo! 

OpenAI stops new ChatGPT Plus subscriptions due to demand

OpenAI announced a more powerful GPT-4 Turbo language model to a custom GPT marketplace earlier this month–resulting in a "surge of usage." Because of this, the company temporarily paused sign-ups for its $20-per-month ChatGPT Plus subscription service. Learn more on Mashable.

Restaurants offering subscriptions are up 54% over the past year

According to Square, the number of restaurants offering some form of active subscription plan to their customers has grown by 54% over the past year. These subscriptions–anything from a wine club to a taco lover’s pass–have become increasingly popular as restaurants seek to create more stable revenue through automated payments and increase customer loyalty. Read more on The Spoon.

🎁 Holidays are here! Here’s everything you should know about customer spending

Our latest survey shows that 53% of gift givers and 51% of recipients are considering subscriptions as presents this year. How much will they spend? How can you turn one-time gift recipients into long-term consumers after a gift subscription expires? Check out the report.

From the Recurly blog

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