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.

Huffman raised the prospect during an earnings call in which he said Reddit would also be testing AI-powered search results later this year … Reddit’s drive for cash

Reddit has been very focused on making money both in the run-up to its IPO, and since.

The first big news on this front was more than a year ago, when the company started charging developers for API calls, forcing the closure of the popular third-party app Apollo. That led to wide-scale protests that the company had to forcibly shut down.

It was subsequently revealed that the company had signed a deal with Google to allow Reddit posts to be used as training data, which subsequently saw the company blocking all other search engines. AI search could generate ad revenue Top comment by John Atkinson Liked by 7 people

I have doubts that this could work in practice, primarily because a big part what makes reddit useful is the ability for anyone to comment, you’d lose the people who have knowledge but aren’t going to spend money to share it. Then there’s moderation; is reddit going to pay for moderation because its a paid premium experience, unlikely as they just want money but then who is going to spend the money to moderate ie who’s going to pay to volunteer for a company; or will moderators get free access in which case how do you get the moderators in the first place?

What will likely happen is these paid subreddits will end up being just like the wave of dead subreddits, you’ll occasionally see a post that might get some interaction but it’s not people’s go to place. They may get a ton of people for the first month or two trying it out(especially if there’s a free trial) but very few people will be interested in paying and the subreddits will die down until no one is left, after all if there’s no content then why would you keep paying and it would enter a death spiral as more people have that same thought. View all comments

Engadget reports that Huffman now sees AI-powered search as a potential revenue source.

During the call, the Reddit co-founder said the company would begin testing AI-powered search results later this year [and] that search could one day be a significant source of advertising revenue for the company.

Some subreddits could be paywalled

More worryingly, Huffman also hinted that in future some subreddits could be paywalled.

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.”

  • kinsnik@lemmy.worldEnglish
    28·
    3 months ago

    I swear that the only job that can be replaced with an LLM is CEO. The output will be equally shitty, but it would cost a lot less…

    • myliltoehurts@lemm.eeEnglish
      13·
      3 months ago

      So untrue, an LLM is way more apologetic when it messes up…

      Imagine if it got told the API pricing idea is stupid and it just went “you’re right, my bad” immediately. We’d probably be having this conversation on Reddit.

      • Zeoic@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        The LLM would be trained with information from and about CEOs, so it will probably just power trip and force its incorrect decisions anyways

  • Lantern@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    3 months ago

    Wouldn’t these subreddits just immediately pop up elsewhere. For example, if r/pics was paid, what’s to stop someone from creating r/picsfree?

    • kinsnik@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      3 months ago

      Reddit would probably ban “paywall evasion” subreddits. They have shown that they have no problem shitting on their more loyal users with the while taking control of subreddits that were protesting

      • ladicius@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        3 months ago

        And those loyal users have shown they want to be shit on. Some even like to gargle with whatever is dripping down on them.

        Those subreddits will turn to shitholes really fast. Twitter set the precedence.

  • myliltoehurts@lemm.eeEnglish
    13·
    3 months ago

    So this means every user who contributes posts and comments on a paid subreddit will get a cut from the subscribtion revenue right? Right…?

  • ladicius@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    3 months ago

    And if you didn’t subscribe to their paywalled subreddits THEY WILL SUE YOU!

    Those billionaire idiots are a funny bunch.

  • Random123@fedia.io
    1·
    3 months ago

    Will anyone be kind and bold enough to begin archiving important posts that have good information?

    • yeehaw@lemmy.caEnglish
      162·
      3 months ago

      Hard to confirm with the zillion cat pictures you’ve been posting

        • yeehaw@lemmy.caEnglish
          71·
          3 months ago

          I don’t know why you think I meant other people are posting your cat.

          You’re right though, everyone should scour the internet for a post of an article you posted to make sure they don’t commit internet crime of “reposting”. Especially people who may not be in the community in which you posted it on. Makes total sense!

          /s

          Case in point, I found this article before yours :P

    • InfiniteGlitch@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      93·
      3 months ago

      ALREADY POSTED!

      It doesn’t matter whether you or someone else already posted it. Happens often that something gets posted multiple times because of how Lemmy works.

      Nobody else is posting my cat. Lots of people posting this news. It’s redundant and old already.

      And to directly comment your other comment. How should one know it is your particular cat and not a cat picture that’s taken from the internet? Not that, that even matters.

      The other commenter just said that, I guess because your comment is redundant and not necessary. You posted it or seen it before? Okay, fine. Scroll past it or hide it.

      It’s redundant and old already.

      To zoom in on this, it is actually not redundant and old for other people. Perhaps for you yeah, but some people might not have seen your particular post and will see this one.

        • InfiniteGlitch@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          51·
          3 months ago

          Sure do like to hear yourself talk, eh?

          No, not really but I like to type a lot. Since that’s what we do on Lemmy, typing to one another and not speaking to each other.

          However, you seem to have no counter argument therefore trying to act douchey. Usual tactics, I suppose. Thanks for the entertainment. You’ll be another person on the block list, so I don’t have to see your nonsense.