Reddit is planning to introduce a paywall this year, CEO Steve Huffman said during a videotaped Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Thursday.
Huffman previously showed interest in potentially introducing a new type of subreddit with “exclusive content or private areas” that Reddit users would pay to access.
When asked this week about plans for some Redditors to create “content that only paid members can see,” Huffman said:
It’s a work in progress right now, so that one’s coming… We’re working on it as we speak.
When asked about “new, key features that you plan to roll out for Reddit in 2025,” Huffman responded, in part: “Paid subreddits, yes.”
Reddit’s paywall would ostensibly only apply to certain new subreddit types, not any subreddits currently available.
Reddit executives also discussed how they might introduce more ads into the social media platform. The push for ads follows changes to Reddit’s API policy that, in part, led to the closing of most third-party apps used for accessing Reddit. Reddit makes most of its revenue from ads and can only show ads on its native apps and website.
Reddit started testing ads in comments last year, with COO Jen Wong saying during an AMA that such ads are in “about 3 percent of inventory.” The executive hinted at that percentage growing. Wong also shared hopes that contextual advertising, or ads being shown based on the content surrounding them, will be a “bigger part of” Reddit’s business by 2026.
imagine charging for displaying content you didn’t even make.
the balls are astounding, but this ain’t gonna go well for them.
I disagree. I hate the decisions they make and personally, along with you, I think it’s idiotic.
But while I hate on them, they will get away with it. Theyre not stupid. The decisions don’t align with its users but it will still work.
Look at netflix raising prices for arguably worse content. Working for them.
Reddit; Charging for the API essentially killing almost all 3rd party apps. Not sure the effect but reddit doesn’t seem to really be hurting. Users want to move but reddit is just too good. I even still use it because the user content on there is amazing. I try to ask all my questions/have discussions on lemmy, but I’m one person. Reddit has infinity more always contributing. I think the management sucks, but the platform just isn’t fully rivaled yet so they can keep milking their audience.
Netflix was always a paid service though. I don’t know if people will want to pay for something they’ve had for free for over a decade, especially if the free subreddits will still exist.
I’d also imagine that for any paid subreddit, someone will make a free version with similar content.
Oh I’m sure that for one reason or another many of these free subreddits will end up migrating. Feature/moderator tool stagnation, potential payment or rev share models, plain old BS reasons to close existing subs.
Whatever the excuse, their next move will be to shift big subreddits over, maybe starting with popular but more niche subs, then pivoting from there.
Anything that is niche, dominating in terms of Internet presence for that interest, and potentially tied to folks who have more disposable income.
I agree that it won’t go bad for them. It costs them almost nothing to implement and when you have a big enough userbase there are always rubes who will pay for anything you charge for.
I thought Tinder’s most expensive tier costing $500/month was a joke, but it’s actually a thing. Someone somewhere is paying $500 for Tinder every single month. Wild.
It’s for people with that much money to waste. Saudi princes and the like.
The secret is they made it easy to bypass, the API still works if you moderate any subreddit, even if it’s one you just made. They made it just difficult enough to move the 99% of normie users to their own app.
Are you certain it works this way? I find it hard to believe
Yes, I’m still using Joey just fine. A lot of the apps were disabled by their creators, although there’s apparently revanced patches for some.
Can confirm, I can use Boost for Reddit on my main account which is a moderator for a sub, but my second account which has no moderation abilities “breaks” the app until I switch back.
I disagree that Reddit has good content but even bad content is better than no content for communities that haven’t been built here yet
This is probably targeting a adult content creators, aka trying to get a finger in onlyfans’ pie
source: my ass, but I’m just smellin where money’s goin is all
If the paid subreddits pay out to the creators, that seems like an okay feature. Also dipping into the Patreon market.
Repost bots are already rampant on big subs, but it would get so much worse if those bots could generate continual revenue.
Yeah that’s pretty much the only real market I can see for this.
Not to mention that paywalled content being moderated by unpaid volunteers.
And commented and reposted by bots.
Some mods would do it. I don’t know why, but they would.
It’s like using the failed Reddit Gold lounge as a business model. A sub of awkward dudes that paid to be there and random people passing through and not sure WTF is going on with the awkward party.
Have they stopped that now? I remember being in it at one point. I didn’t post and didn’t really look at it
Yeah, a couple years back it went away, replaced by super stickers or some dumb thing.
I’m going to frame your comment and sell it!
I was thinking a profit sharing concept for the people running the sub would make sense. I’m sure that’s not what it is though.