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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r/spezholedesign
Can’t wait to see the mental gymnastics subreddit moderators will perform to defend this!
It was wild how spineless most of them were when the API stuff happened, and it showed how attached they are to their little bubble of power.
And some of them acted even more pathetic with virtue signaling.
Like the r/de mods allowed memes for a full week in “protest”. Such rebels… they sure showed spez with that one…
I was proud of them for those subreddit blackouts, but when communities started to come back online after the mods were threatened with replacement - I knew I had to get out of there for good.
I managed to stave off the threats until a couple of months ago since someone put a reddit request in. Oh well, fuck spez and reddit.
You have my respect. I’m guessing all the mods with a tad of integrity left during this time, leaving their subreddits closed
Over half of us in r/Android left and while a few of headed over here and made our very own instance, some stopped on and, I paraphrase
I’m not seeing some shitheel coming and doing spezs deeds, and I’ll just mass approve/remove shite
Brave fucker that mod.
Yeah it really was pathetic.
Like they took a stand while it was cool, but then capitulated rather than face removal.
watch them lock old reddit behind a paywall just because it’s the best part about reddit
Digg: “join us reddit…”
We all float down here 💩💩💩
Just came to lemmy again after learning this shit!! mass exodus coming soon
same here lol. If they paywall subreddits ive been visiting for the past FOURTEEN years, i will lose my shit. by throwing it at the reddit headquarters.
I wouldn’t be too sure just yet, seeing how annoying youtube and it’s ads have gotten yet it isn’t replaced still.
We might have an increase, but plenty will never leave.
YouTube hasn’t been replaced because adblockers still work.
Youtube is probably the most difficult platform on the internet to replace. Video content delivery is extremely resource heavy and technically complicated, especially once you start to scale. Many, many competitors have attempted it over the years, and while some found their niche, none of them have achieved anywhere close to the scale of Youtube.
It took decades of Youtube to become profitable, only doing so after achieving mind-boggling economy of scale. The majority of humans on earth have used Youtube. About half of all (global) internet users use it monthly. I don’t know if any other platform can claim stats like that.
Youtube is one of those platforms that only exists because it got a head start in the unique conditions of the early internet. I don’t know if it’s even possible to create a true competitor, though I could see multiple platforms taking over different niches.
Youtube is not easily replacible.
Creating quality videos are much more difficult than memes on Reddit/Lemmy type of sites.
No content creators is gonna move because of the issue of monitization. And most couldn’t care less about Youtube’s enshittification. You cant say “Just use Peertube” when there are like nothing interesting to watch. It’s like trying to stop watching popular Movies / TV shows because “big corp media bad”. Piracy would be the best mitigation in the Movies / TV situation, and that in Youtube’s situation is just using an adblocker.
In contast, Reddit/Lemmy type of sites are just strangers talking to strangers. You are moving from Stanger Group A to Stranger Group B. It’s the easiest transition ever.
Not to mention, the storage for Lemmy instances is like in the GBs. Get a 1TB harddrive and you’re good for a long time. A Youtube replacement? On you’re gonna need PETABYTES, and all the bandwith to serve the content.
After reddit goes paywall It’s time to Lemmy
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
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.
One of the funniest consequences of the checkmark is people claiming “I didn’t pay for it, Musk gave this to me!!”
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)
🏴☠️
Man this reddit site sounds awful
i really wish there was an open source alternative to it :(
looks around
…wait.
Can I reply to this next week when I stop laughing
Yes.
Sigh unzips pants and fuck u/spez
One could argue they already did that with Reddit Gold and /r/Lounge.
The lounge is trash content anyways.
Enshittification intensifies.
spez is slow walking Reddit to the graveyard.
It’s slowly becoming twitter/x
It’s been obvious for a while that spez is trying to be a Musk/Zuck.
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.
