Reddit CEO hints that subreddit paywalls are on the way

Some subreddits might be paywalled as part of Reddit’s revenue-boosting strategy since going public earlier this year.

In its second earnings call as a public company on Tuesday, CEO Steve Huffman teased this and other changes for Reddit.

Inside Reddit’s new money-making strategy

The platform has stayed notably consistent over the years and hasn’t been monetized into oblivion like other social media sites. However, all that may change now that the company has shareholders to satisfy.

“I think the existing, altruistic, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has,” Huffman said per Engadget. “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.”

In the months leading up to Reddit’s IPO, and continuing since then, the site has aggressively pursued new revenue sources. The most controversial change was Huffman’s decision to hike up its API fees, which many third-party apps couldn’t afford. More recently, Reddit signed a deal with Google, which allows the search engine giant to train its models on Reddit posts. Reddit also blocked other search engines from crawling the site unless they pay for access and recently signed a licensing deal with OpenAI, meaning user posts and comments are used to train ChatGPT.

In addition to monetizing user data and paywalling certain subreddits, Reddit plans to explore AI-generated search capabilities.

“Later this year, we will begin testing new search result pages powered by AI to summarize and recommend content, helping users dive deeper into products, shows, games and discover new communities on Reddit,” said Huffman who said AI-generated search could eventually generate ad revenue.

Reddit’s Q2 earnings reported a 54 percent increase in sales from the previous year and narrowed its net losses from 41 million to 10 million. So things are looking better for shareholders — just not for Redditors.