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Reddit plans to lock some content behind a paywall this year, CEO says | Reddit executives also discussed how they might introduce more ads into the social media platform (arstechnica.com)

submitted 4 days ago by ForgottenFlux to c/technology

258 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (4 children)

As much as we'd like to joke about the sudden influx of new Lemmy users that will result from this lets all be real, it will be a few new users. Most Reddit users will accept whatever is thrown at them from that company while crying about it on Reddit. I don't know what the phenomena is but it seems that most people would rather stay on the bad platform than try something new and slightly different. I'm cool with that, I like niche platforms.

[–] shortrounddev 6 points 4 days ago

That's fine. A more fragmented internet is better for the world

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Its a toxic relationship, I literally could not leave, became aware of lemmy maybe two months before I left and always had the intention to make an account but put it off til I was perm banned, looking at my notifications I was getting less replies than ever. And if ppl replied it was to actively not be helpful or tell me to do anything other than answer my question.

[–] designated_fridge 2 points 4 days ago

The key part here is that (at least initially...) they won't put any existing subreddits behind a paywall. So users' habits won't really be interrupted.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

if it's the same amount of ppl trying out Linux we might be going places