Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, has revealed that the platform might soon offer subreddits with exclusive or private content possibly tied to a paywall. The information came during an earnings call where Huffman discussed adding new subreddit models featuring unique offerings.
Potential for Exclusive Content
Huffman made it clear that Reddit's free tier will remain robust. He highlighted that premium subreddits would create new opportunities and uses for the platform. Huffman indicated confidence that these exclusive communities wouldn't diminish the existing user community, which has grown by 51 percent to 91.2 million daily active users. The platform's revenue also jumped by 54 percent, hitting $281.2 million.
Tim Rathschmidt, a Reddit spokesperson, shared that the company is investigating ways to help moderators and communities provide exclusive spaces and content. Rathschmidt pointed to previous premium features like r/goldlounge that had positive feedback. Although specifics are scarce, he promised more details will follow as plans mature.
AI Integration and Search Enhancements
Moreover, Huffman mentioned Reddit's initiative to improve search results leveraging AI models. This follows an earlier announcement about Reddit's AI training deal with Google, involving Google's Vertex AI to enhance search functionalities.
Reddit has also restricted search engines like Bing unless they pay for access to its material. This is part of Reddit's plan to become profitable, addressing other challenges like prohibiting AI companies such as Anthropic and Perplexity from scraping its content.
Balancing Profitability and User Satisfaction
Reddit's aggressive corporate strategy aims to marry profitability with keeping users content. The platform needs to handle these changes with care to prevent backlash, much like last year's protests over its API pricing.
Reddit faced criticism for its decision to increase the price of its APIs. The price increases were set to take effect on July 1, 2023. However, Reddit later said that it will waive the fees for developers of accessibility apps. Thousands of subreddits committed to going dark on June 11 and 12, 2023 to protest the change. Reddit somewhat relented by giving free API access to accessibility apps, but not others.
Reddit then removed its award program, which allowed users to purchase awards to give to other users. This was one of the clearest ways for Reddit to monetize, so it was surprising the company removed the feature. Mods from the r/AMA subreddits later abandoned the platform, meaning no more Ask Me Anything threads from celebrities or influential people.
