Some subreddits could be paywalled, hints Reddit CEO - 9to5Mac
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Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has hinted that in future some subreddits could be paywalled, as the company seeks to devise...

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has hinted that in future some subreddits could be paywalled, as the company seeks to devise new sources of income.

He suggested that the company might experiment with paywalled subreddits as it looks to monetize new features. “I think the existing, altruistic, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has,” Huffman said. “But now we will unlock the door for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built that may have exclusive content or private areas, things of that nature.”

This is another move likely to anger Redditors. While the platform is a commercial enterprise, its value derives almost entirely from freely offered user content. That means Redditors feel at least some sense of ownership in a community endeavour, so the company needs to tread carefully when it comes to monetization at user expense.

    • cygnus@lemmy.caEnglish
      7·
      5 months ago

      There’s also no correlation between creating a Lemmy account and completely quitting Reddit.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        No, but it’s a reasonable assumption that individual will be spending less time on the platform, at the very minimum.

        Personally, I haven’t used Reddit on my phone since they killed third party apps, although I have used the desktop site for a few subreddits that don’t really exist here.

    • btaf45@lemmy.worldEnglish
      81·
      5 months ago

      Yes. More than a little. It was a huge event for lemmy. Did you think the entire reddit userbase was going to switch in one week? Reddit didn’t get their userbase in one week. It’s a process. Now there is a well known alternative to reddit. Everything in reddit looks shittier than it was before the exodus. It’s nearly impossible to become a ‘new user’ on reddit and with the rando-bans they keep giving out they are just going to keep shrinking.