- Reddit plans to introduce paywalls for exclusive content this year.
- The company discussed creating paid subreddits and an e-commerce system during a Q4 earnings AMA.
- CEO Steve Huffman said the paywalled forums are still a “work in progress.”
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says paywalls are coming to the popular forum discussion platform this year.
Reddit hosted an AMA this week and took user questions about its fourth-quarter earnings.
One Reddit user asked Huffman if the company had made any progress on creating paid subreddits or “content that only paid members can see.”
“It’s a work in progress right now,” Huffman said. “So that one’s coming. We’re working on it as we speak.”
A second user asked Huffman if Reddit planned to introduce paid subreddits or a “system of marketplaces” in 2025.
“Paid subreddits, yes,” Huffman said. “A marketplace, probably not, though we’ll be laying the foundation for it.”
Huffman first mentioned the idea of paid subreddits during a second-quarter earnings call in August, during which he said the company was considering forums with “exclusive content or private areas.”
During the AMA, another user asked Huffman if Reddit would add features to further monetize e-commerce, like letting users pay on the site instead of through a third-party app like PayPal. Huffman said Reddit was considering those kinds of features in the long term but was currently focused on other priorities.
Reddit’s shares dropped by 15% on Thursday after the company announced its fourth-quarter earnings, which showed user growth below analysts’ expectations.
Over the past year, Reddit has generally gained ground on Google in the internet’s search market. Reddit also struck a deal with Google and OpenAI in February to train their respective AI models using Reddit comments.
Huffman has repeatedly said that more people are searching on Google with the term “Reddit” included in the search.
However, in the fourth-quarter earnings call, Huffman told investors that the company saw “volatility” in traffic last quarter after Google tweaked its search algorithm.
In the AMA, a Reddit user asked Huffman how Reddit would prevent being “dependent on Google for traffic.”
Huffman called Reddit’s relationship with Google “long, deep, and symbiotic.” He said Reddit gets “a lot” of traffic from Google and that the company “appreciates that traffic ” but is not “dependant on Google for traffic.”
“Reddit stands on its own as an independent platform with majority direct traffic,” he added. “That’s how we’ve grown.”
On the earnings call, Huffman said that the volatility in the fourth quarter didn’t concern him and didn’t impact revenue.
