USA TODAY International Edition
Get set to pay for more Marco Polo
Premium version of video app has updates
The Marco Polo video chat app has seen a dramatic rise in usage during the coronavirus crisis, which has put a financial strain on an app that’s free.
So a new premium version of Marco Polo, Marco Polo Plus, started rolling out this week to select users, and will be available to the general public by mid- May for $ 5 monthly. Some key features from the free version were taken away, and will be made available only to Plus subscribers. It’s in addition to the free version, which will remain free, says co- founder Vlada Bortnik.
Marco Polo is different from other video chat apps such as FaceTime and Skype, which rely on live, real- time communication. In Marco Polo, it’s more like a walkie- talkie, in that one person sends a video, and the other replies to it. The idea is to stay connected, without having to worry about getting schedules in sync to meet up, says Bortnik. The new features of Plus:
❚ Audio messages. Or, as the app calls it, “Polo from anywhere ( yes, even in a bathrobe.”)
❚ Speed up the process. Play back the messages ( called "Polos") with faster speed control 3x, vs. ersus the current 2x, and get access to a scratchpad to make notes as the Polos play. The ability to play back Polos faster is now only available on the paid version, as well as photo uploads.
❚ Custom emojis are part of the monthly subscription. Bortnik says the speed feature is her favorite of the new offerings. “As someone who gets a lot of Polo messages, some people drag their message out a little longer, and now I can control how I consume their polos,” she says. “One of the beauties of Marco Polo is that you can talk uninterrupted, which means ... someone can talk uninterrupted, which can make for a very long Polo.”
The speed will help, and the scratchpad will help “so I can remember all the questions they asked me,” and answer when it’s her turn.
In March 2020, Marco Polo experienced a 16x increase in new signups and a 3x increase in activity. Earlier this month, the Marco Polo community sent 20,000,000 Polos in one 24hour period. The app has received more than 10 million downloads, with 900,000 alone in March, according to market tracker Sensor Tower.
The monetization question has been one dogging Bortnik for months, and many of the new features came from suggestions by Polo fans. “They want us to make the business sustainable,” she says.
Existing users will have the option to switch back to the original Marco Polo version, she says.