Plans for a Reddit paywall of some kind have now been confirmed by CEO Steve Huffman, after hints about it last summer.
Huffman confirmed the plan for paid subreddits during a pre-recorded Ask Me Anything video shown during the company’s earnings call …
The idea was first mentioned during a previous earning call in August of last year.
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 said] “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.”
Engadget reports that Huffman has now explicitly confirmed that this means paid subreddits.
When asked if he could share information about the development of paid subreddits, Huffman said that “It’s a work in progress right now, so that one’s coming.” To a follow up question about new features coming to Reddit in 2025, Huffman said “Paid subreddits? Yes,” confirming they’re on the list.
Top comment by Ofer
So will they start paying all of the people who actually contribute information to Reddit and moderate all of the subreddits? Because that’s where the value of Reddit comes from and all of those people are contributing this of their own good will.
As the site notes, he didn’t go into any details, but one possibility is some subreddits being limited to Reddit Premium subscribers.
As we noted previously, it’s not a move which is likely to go down well with Redditors, who haven’t been impressed by the company’s previous monetization moves.
You can watch the video here.
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