Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has hinted that in future some subreddits could be paywalled, as the company seeks to devise new sources of income.
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.”
This is another move likely to anger Redditors. While the platform is a commercial enterprise, its value derives almost entirely from freely offered user content. That means Redditors feel at least some sense of ownership in a community endeavour, so the company needs to tread carefully when it comes to monetization at user expense.
They think they are so entrenched that the thought of users leaving is not a consideration at all. He said it himself and been proven right. Governments are also asleep at the wheel. Their users are prisoners.
That works until it doesn’t. Though it has been a few years since there was a nice notable example.
Those hundred of millions of users create a lot of inertia. We are fortunate these places are run by clueless megalomaniacs. If they had been run competently, they could very well take our civilisation prisoner for hundreds of years like the counterparts in Russia and China.
You assume that the governments of which you speak are not assisting intentionally. These companies did not write the EULA legal frameworks that allow them virtual carte blanch to take and do whatever they want just because the population is trapped in the endless cycle of coercion that is our life.