Earlier this year, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman confirmed its company’s plan to introduce paid subreddits. These should offer exclusive, insightful, or private content of sorts behind a paywall. However, it appears that the paid subreddits plan is now on hold in order to prioritize Reddit search engine plans. But the company says it still believes in the idea, hinting that the idea could be on the cards at some point in the future.
The paid subreddits plan is put on hold, but it’s still an opportunity
The idea of paid subreddits goes back to last year when Huffman first hinted at it. “ 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,” said the Reddit CEO. This statement led many to believe that paid subreddits will make a debut.
Earlier this year, Huffman explicitly confirmed the development and shared that it’s a work in progress right now, “so that one’s coming.” When asked about new features coming to Reddit in 2025, Huffman said, “Paid subreddits? Yes,” confirming they’re in the works.
The Reddit search engine is a top priority now
Now, months later, the company seems to have a change of mind, as this is no longer a priority. Huffman has now said that paid subreddits are not a priority at the moment, but still sees it as a future opportunity. This is to stay focused on what matters most at the moment. Reddit is reportedly shifting resources away from certain areas, including its work on the user economy. This is what some refer to as paid subreddits.
Right now, the company is all in for strengthening its core product. To make Reddit the “go-to place for search, and accelerate international growth.” The company sees Reddit Answers as its top priority. The company claims that its core search product now has 70 million weekly users, and Reddit Answers grew to 6 million, up from 1 million last quarter.
Reddit, last month, added new profile curation tools. This allows users to hide posts and comments from their public profiles on a subreddit-by-subreddit basis. This aims to enhance privacy.
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