Reddit CEO Suggests Some Subreddits Could Be Paywalled

Social network Reddit could monetize by tucking some subreddits behind paywalls, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman suggested during the company's Tuesday earnings call (via Engadget).

General Apps Reddit Feature
Huffman said that Reddit plans to "unlock the door" for subreddits that could have "exclusive content or private areas."

I think the existing, altruistic, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has. 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.

Huffman did not outright confirm that Reddit is going to charge for access to subreddits in the future, but that seems to be what he was hinting at.

Reddit also plans to test AI-powered search results later in 2024, with AI used to summarize and recommend content. Huffman said that the search tools would help "users dive deeper into products, shows, games and discover new communities on Reddit." Huffman believes that search could be a major source of advertising revenue going forward.

Reddit has already established deals with Google and OpenAI to allow the companies to train their AI models using Reddit content, and OpenAI's ChatGPT is now able to surface Reddit conversations in ChatGPT. Reddit attempted to reach a deal with Microsoft, but failed to do so, and later blocked Bing from accessing Reddit content.

Last year, Reddit started charging developers for accessing its API, which led to the shutdown of several popular Reddit clients, including Apollo. Apollo developer Christian Selig said that he would need to pay $20 million per year in fees to keep the app up and running, which was not feasible, and Reddit was not willing to work with him or provide a reasonable timeline to make changes.

Reddit began charging for API access ahead of when it became a public company in March 2024, and it continues to seek new ways to monetize content from its user base.

Tag: Reddit

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April. From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
Generic iPhone 17 Feature With Full Width Dynamic Island

Latest iPhone 17 Series CAD Images in Line With Redesign Rumors

Friday February 28, 2025 2:51 am PST by
Apple is expected to embrace a new camera system design for some models in its upcoming iPhone 17 series, and the latest purported CAD images don't deviate from what we have been hearing lately about Apple's new lineup. If you do not like the sound of an iPhone with a Google Pixel-style camera bar, look away now. Seasoned leaker Sonny Dickson shared the following images in a post on X...
iphone 16e usb c feature

Apple Provides Reason for iPhone 16e's Lack of MagSafe

Friday February 28, 2025 4:39 am PST by
Apple has offered a reason why the iPhone 16e doesn't include MagSafe, one of the more notable omissions from its latest entry-level smartphone. According to Apple representatives who spoke to Daring Fireball's John Gruber, MagSafe is not included in the iPhone 16e because "most people in the iPhone 16e's target audience exclusively charge their phones by plugging them into a charging...
apple intelligence black

These New Apple Intelligence Features Are Coming in iOS 18.4

Friday February 28, 2025 3:17 pm PST by
iOS 18.4 was supposed to bring new Apple Intelligence Siri features, but Apple ended up needing to pull those capabilities from the update to continue testing. There are fewer new Apple Intelligence additions now, but there are still some new features that will make the update worth installing when it comes out in April. Priority Notifications Apple introduced Priority Notifications back at ...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Rumored to Include These New Features for Your iPhone

Saturday March 1, 2025 11:00 am PST by
iOS 19 is still around three months away from being unveiled, but there are plenty of rumors about the upcoming update. Below, we recap iOS 19 rumors so far. Redesigned Camera App A leak earlier this year allegedly revealed a redesigned Camera app coming with iOS 19. On his YouTube channel Front Page Tech in January, Jon Prosser shared a video showing what the new Camera app will...
cook trump

Trump Responds to Apple Keeping Diversity Policies

Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017 "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote. Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
airpods pro purple

Here's When AirPods Pro 3 Are Rumored to Launch

Monday February 24, 2025 9:14 am PST by
According to a post on X today from a leaker known as Kosutami, Apple plans to launch AirPods Pro 3 in May or June this year. The leaker also claimed that an AirTag 2 will launch around the same time. Kosutami is best known as a collector of prototype Apple hardware, but they have occasionally shared accurate information about Apple's future product plans. For example, they accurately...
apple c1

How Fast is Apple's First-Ever 5G Modem? The Results Are Surprising

Friday February 28, 2025 10:08 am PST by
iPhone 16e reviews are now out, and Apple's custom-designed C1 modem has been put to the test. The results so far are quite surprising, as the C1's speeds are not as slow compared to Qualcomm modems as originally expected. While the C1 does not support ultra-fast mmWave 5G in the U.S., it appears to offer comparable 5G performance to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X71 modem found in the iPhone 16,...

Top Rated Comments

brofkand Avatar
8 months ago
If anything, Reddit should pay their users for all the free content they're getting to sell to AI companies. The biggest scam on the Internet right now.
Score: 51 Votes (Like | Disagree)
boss.king Avatar
8 months ago
Reddit CEO confirms he has no new ideas.
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
btrach144 Avatar
8 months ago
It’ll just make 3rd party sites like Macrumors forums stronger.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
breenmask Avatar
8 months ago
Redditors: "Haha elon running Twitter to the ground with paid blue checkmarks and subscriptions"
Also Redditors: "omg I can make money from my subreddit!"
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coffeemilktea Avatar
8 months ago
Ah, Steve Huffman... a social media CEO whose greatest accomplishment is making other social media CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg seem charming and likeable by comparison. I don't know how he does it, but he does it so flawlessly. ?
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CrysisDeu Avatar
8 months ago
That’s also probably why they had to kill Apollo lol.

At this point, why don’t the users build a open source reddit again
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)