Reddit will lock some content behind a paywall this year, CEO says
arstechnica.com
How will Reddit generate content for paid-for subreddits?

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.

  • Nima@leminal.spaceEnglish
    0·
    25 days ago

    imagine charging for displaying content you didn’t even make.

    the balls are astounding, but this ain’t gonna go well for them.

    • JackAttack@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      25 days ago

      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.

      • TORFdot0@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        24 days ago

        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

      • kinkles@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        0·
        25 days ago

        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.

        • jumjummy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          24 days ago

          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.

      • samus12345@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        24 days ago

        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.

        • JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.mlEnglish
          0·
          24 days ago

          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.

          • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
            0·
            24 days ago

            It’s for people with that much money to waste. Saudi princes and the like.

      • RobotToaster@mander.xyzEnglish
        0·
        25 days ago

        Reddit; Charging for the API essentially killing almost all 3rd party apps.

        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.

          • RobotToaster@mander.xyzEnglish
            0·
            24 days ago

            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.

            • Russ@bitforged.spaceEnglish
              0·
              24 days ago

              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.

    • danc4498@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      24 days ago

      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.

      • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        24 days ago

        If the paid subreddits pay out to the creators, that seems like an okay feature. Also dipping into the Patreon market.

        • JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.mlEnglish
          0·
          24 days ago

          Repost bots are already rampant on big subs, but it would get so much worse if those bots could generate continual revenue.

    • hansolo@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      24 days ago

      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.

      • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        0·
        24 days ago

        Have they stopped that now? I remember being in it at one point. I didn’t post and didn’t really look at it

        • hansolo@lemm.eeEnglish
          0·
          24 days ago

          Yeah, a couple years back it went away, replaced by super stickers or some dumb thing.

  • lefixxx@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    25 days ago

    Please reddit, make more bad decisions faster so people can overcome switching costs finally

  • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    25 days ago

    Anyone who pays for access to “private” content on the shithole site deserves as much mockery as a cybertruck owner. It requires absolutely no self respect

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      24 days ago

      Lol I don’t even pay for Movies / TV

      It’s not even primarily about “I don’t wanna support big corp” (although, that is one of the reasons), its just the fact that I’d be broke af if I had to pay for all that entertainment.

      I mean like… pay??? In this economy??? I don’t even get paid enough to survive

      Chexk out this community btw: !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com (blocked by lemmy.world instance)

      🏴‍☠️

    • GodlessCommie@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      25 days ago

      It will be the same types that buy a blue check for Twitter, like it’s a badge of honor to pay for free services.

      • EngineerGaming@feddit.nlEnglish
        0·
        24 days ago

        One of the funniest consequences of the checkmark is people claiming “I didn’t pay for it, Musk gave this to me!!”

  • Sol 6 VI StatCmd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    Glad I was finally early to something for once. It’s been nice reading the reddit news from Lemmy for the last year or so.

  • Hawk@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    There’s nothing on Reddit anymore. It’s really unfortunate but I don’t see how this is going to help them regain any consistent user base.

  • hesusingthespiritbomb@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    I feel like this is gonna be a cash cow for reddit, just not in a way spez can just openly talk about.

    A huge portion of reddit is OnlyFans promos. Reddit is making zero off of all this, because traditional advertising doesn’t want to associate themselves with porn. A bunch of these “paid subreddits” will basically be a reddit’s attempt to compete with OnlyFans.

    I honestly think it’ll work. There’s a lot of money in porn.n

  • False@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    25 days ago

    I can’t imagine what sub-reddits they think people would willingly participate in that are paid-only. Decreasing visibility and potential participation group automatically makes those worse in most cases.

  • odelik@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    What I find hilarious is all these companies doing this shit after all the advancements in programming languages and paradigms in the last few years.

    Thanks to tools like Node.js, React, Flask, Reflex, OpenAPI Gen, GoLang, and more, people that are fed-up and have the know-how can stand up competing technology in record time.

    I look forward to see what comes out of this corporate power grab. Hopefully there’s not a lot of pain and suffering alkng the way.