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.

    • Tylerdurdon@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      2 months ago

      Yep. When RIF was killed, I closed that door immediately (was not easy). It was to be expected though, I think. Once a site reaches critical mass, money interests enter the picture and greed can always screw up a good thing. It’s a shame.

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      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.

      • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        That’s the truth. It was tone deafness, a lack of responsiveness, and a clear lack of principles that made me leave during that.

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      2 months ago

      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.

    • CrowAirbrush@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      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.

      • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        7·
        2 months ago

        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.

    • Grassgrowz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      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.

  • CastorSulMush@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    2 months ago

    More ads? There’s already a bunch of them mixed with posts and comments. What more, force people to watch an ad before loading pages?

  • njordomir@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago

    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.

    • JimmyMcGill@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      The more they do shit like this the more they will

      I mean, honestly Reddit is a dead site walking. At this point is not if it will “die” but how fast and I guess more importantly where will its users go. Hopefully here but who knows

  • Absaroka@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    2 months ago

    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.