Some sections of Reddit (subreddits) may become paid as the platform administration seeks to create new sources of income, company CEO Steve Huffman said during a conversation with investors after the publication of the quarterly financial report.
Image source: Reddit
In the run-up to its initial public offering (IPO) and its aftermath, Reddit management has a new and important goal: to increase the platform’s revenue. The company took its first major step in this direction more than a year ago when it began charging for API access, leading to the closure of its popular third-party client Apollo. Community users staged protests, which the platform administration had to suppress. The company subsequently entered into agreements with Google and OpenAI to give them access to content in exchange for money and access to advanced AI models.
Mr. Huffman also said the company may begin experimenting with paid subreddits as part of a program to monetize new features. “I think the existing altruistic, free version will continue to exist, grow and thrive as before. But now we’re going to open the door to new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be created that will have exclusive content or private sections and things like that,” Huffman said.
There is an opinion that this step will again not please Reddit users. The platform is a commercial enterprise, but its value comes almost entirely from free user-generated content. This means that community members feel somewhat like they have ownership of the content, and the company will have to be careful as it seeks to drive user-driven monetization.