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.
I’m glad I jumped ship back during the ban on 3rd party apps. That was it for me.
Same. I had even paid for the paid tier of my 3rd party app because it was such a good value to me that I wanted the devs to have some of my money. Thanks to that app, I was on the site more and pretty much never via computer anymore.
I think it was for the best though. Quality over quantity here. I find it to be far less toxic on Lemmy overall. It’s like how people tend to be nicer in a small town because you know you’re gonna run into these people over and over again, but the big city you came from had more variety in stuff to check out. Definitely a trade-off, but I think it’s worth it to have this much more pleasant space that isn’t so packed with content as to be addictive. Good vibes.
I’ve gone back to reddit a few times from searches, and after spending time away it is really apparent how negative most of the comments over there are.
For example, anytime someone asks for help, someone always has to show up and get angry that they didn’t search instead of asking. Then a third person shows up and says that a search brought them to this thread… and no one ever answers the question. Thanks reddit!
I don’t even use any apps and was just planning on boycotting it for a few days in solidarity. Then Greedy Little Pigboy made his statement about how everyone will come crawling back and that was that.
The memo is in this article, if you’re curious.
This is the actual reason for me too. I’m making a point to never visit that website again.
There’s exceptions like when searching for troubleshooting help and a relevant result happens to be on Reddit, but otherwise I avoid it as much as possible.
I figure as long as you visit with adblock enabled and don’t post anything, you’re not contributing to them in any meaningful way.
Tbh, I didn’t care about the 3rd party apps.
I just didn’t like the silencing of opposition.
If they are willing to do mass censorship for benign things like a 3rd party apps protest, what’s to say they wont booklick governments/corportions and censor info of horrible things that a government/corporation is doing.
It’s the censorship that I was more afraid of. Besides, I always wanted a decentalized platform, but none of it had any users until June 12, 2023.
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.
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.
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.
Not to mention that paywalled content being moderated by unpaid volunteers.
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
Hi, I think I’m doing this right. Just joined Lemmy lol because of this. Can people see my comment?
Good news for Lemmynites.
Bad news is that we’re still not setup for Reddit-level user counts. Lemmy needs much better moderation tools to allow communities to stay on top of reports.
Hopefully a lot of new users will also produce new people contributing to Lemmy. Or, maybe some people will form some sort of nonprofit that allows dedicated designers and engineers to continually work on Lemmy. When people contribute as a side gig, most give up after a few months. Most of the Lemmy clients that were build during the Reddit APIocalypse are no longer alive.
I just left, deleted my account of 15ish years tonight, no regrets. Happy to be here.
With the API changes, I became read-only (without an account) on Reddit.
I now skim the communities that don’t really exist here.
… it’s actually saved me a lot of time now that I can’t (and thus don’t feel the need to) debate local politics with morons anymore!
… unless and until they come to Lemmy.
The internet feels post-apocalyptic now. I no longer have any social media accounts (does lemmy count?) . Places that I spent over a decade on now feel so hostile and foreign. I joined reddit as a teenager wanting to read f7u12 comics, and now reddit feels like a total outrage machine. I mean the ads are crap but the algorithm doesn’t show me content I WANT to see anymore. It just shows me videos of car accidents and street fights and other things that get my cortisol levels up. Blocking subreddits straight up doesnt work. I like that on lemmy I can just filter only by the communities I subscribe to
Same thing here… I only just discovered Lemmy. I don’t know how I managed to only discover it now. But so far so good. It’s not quite as active but that’s okay, Reddit used to be the same way and was actually better then.
I do feel like the old parts of the internet were decentralized and based on protocols, not single websites. So this is very refreshing and feels like getting back to the roots.
Welcome, I joined here after the API protests. It’s a smaller community so content is slow to move but it’s nice to have forums where you’re having constructive conversations with people, not a huge amount of bots or repeated to death catch phrases
Enjoy this little bastion before it attracts mainstream attention. :)
Same bromo, finally felt like it was time. So many good memories on Reddit for me over the last 14 years but finally felt like it was the right move to no longer give it my attention!
