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
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
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.
fuck /u/spez
By far one of the easiest decisions was jumping on over here - and I barely understand it half the time.
Second best was ditching Facebook like it was cancer.
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
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.
Good thing I discovered Lemmy!
I'm not on Reddit much these days but every time I am and I see threads with people discussing these Reddit policy changes Lemmy gets mentioned. Usually with people complaining they already tried or couldn't figure it out or that it isn't good enough...
I think as the enshittification marches on they'll be some more exodus from Reddit but generally I think everyone is just getting used to all online social media being a total corporate disaster.
Another day of thanking my past self for leaving
watch them lock old reddit behind a paywall just because it's the best part about reddit
Late this fall, after all of the nonsense on Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram I asked myself a very simple question.
"Is the reason I joined these sites still valid? What do I actually enjoy about social media these days?"
The answer was basically "rose colored glasses."
I joined **Reddit **after the 'deaths' of Slashdot and Digg. It became my source to get new and interesting content I probably wouldn't have found otherwise. Now it's bots arguing with bots and 75+% of the content is just recycled shit by people trying to make money. Much of the rest is from people trying to manipulate you.
Delete.
I joined Facebook to keep in touch with my friends and family - especially those I don't see often. Over time, the amount of good content from people I knew dropped to maybe 25% of my feed. Most of it now is AI-generated bullshit or more of the same recycled content you see on Reddit.
Delete.
I joined Instagram to share some of my landscape photos and view some of the great photos some close friends were sharing. Over time that became less and less. Queue the recycled and AI-bullshit content.
Delete.
So, I challenge everybody to ask themselves do they actually enjoy social media? Do these sites actually add value to your life and in any way remain true to their promise when you joined them so many moons ago. Are you actually making any connections with people? The 'social' in 'social' media? Or just watching people talk at each other, not to each other.
After answering those questions, the answer about whether to stick around is pretty clear.
Is there anywhere I can find a complete scrape of Reddit threads and comments from before the 3rd party app apocalypse? There was a lot of useful info shared on there, but I don't want anything to do with what that site has become. I'm happy just to CTRL+F a big dataset. It'll probably still work better than either Reddit or Google does nowadays. Without media I imagine I could fit it somewhere.
Also, Spez is a greedy little pig boy.
What's Reddit? A clone of Lemmy?
That's why I'm here. Just made an account. Sick of everything being a goddamn subscription.
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.
What's "reddit" and why does Lemmy seem obsessed with it?
i too deleted my 15-Year Club reddit account
I have eaten far too much popcorn this far, but will keep watching the collapse. My account is 17 - 18 years old at this point but I have not logged in for at least a year.
r/spezholedesign
How is this new? Reddit gold gave you access to the subreddit that only gold members could access. It didn't have anything good in it as everyone would rather have a larger reach.
If he intends to convert an existing sub to it, he will quickly find how much people are happy to more to a new sub.
In order for lemmy (or any alternative) to really take off, efforts need to be made to mass migrate content. The biggest inhibitor of adoption is the lack of communities, and the user submitted info backing them. Not only would it be beneficial for alternatives to have this on their servers, efforts should be made to index and back up the mountain of how to and general hyper specific sub reddit information for the good of society. The world already lost so much during the last purge of users comments and posts, further enshitification of reddit will only lead to more getting lost. Are any groups working to scrape all (or the most important data) from reddit and break it out in a searchable format here?
Lemmy can expect some inbound traffic
Get fuuuuuuucked, Reddit
Man I kinda thought they had already hit enshittification bottom. And then they bring out the backhoe and dynamite.
great, hopefully more people leave the sinking ship
I almost wish Elon would buy it, so he can "manage" it like he did Twitter
Please reddit, make more bad decisions faster so people can overcome switching costs finally
Second influx to the Fediverse?
Its never been a better time to ignore reddit
It’s crazy how everything slowly turns into shit in the end
It does seem like a lot of ads for "3% of inventory". I can't ever see a reason to pay for a subreddit.
"more ads" as if it isn't already as flooded as meta sites.
After reddit goes paywall It's time to Lemmy
Wave incoming
RIP Reddit
Sigh unzips pants and fuck u/spez
Kholer, American standard, and other toilet manufacturers are scrambling to match Toto's ad popularity in "the go" ad business.
If you've changed your extractor fan recently, you might have come out of the restroom humming something new or maybe something familiar like the McDonalds jingle. But such feats of advertising have never been part of the true #2!. Things like bidet splash modulation... Lara papa pa!!! Right in the butt! Or flush ads! A display banner integrated on to the flush tank, and if you open the lid you'll get ads around the bowl and in the back of the lid.
Clorox is coming up with a brad new cleaning chemical family. If you forget to clean you'll be presented with scum in the shape of the clorox logo and the proper code and link to Amazon.
Oh yes please! Enshittify the one and only sanctuary we believed we had!