Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is an Elon Musk fan, and his latest move tries to emulate what Musk has done with X (formerly Twitter) – pay real money for fake internet points (in X's case, engagement).
What Happened: Reddit has announced a new contributor program for content creators, allowing them to make real money using their fake internet points.
"Now redditors can earn real money for their contributions to the Reddit community, based on the karma and gold they’ve been given," the company said.
Reddit currently has two ways for users to encourage other users to make good comments or posts – they can either upvote the comment or post or give the poster Reddit gold. This Reddit gold costs real money, but the only benefit the receivers got until now was an ad-free experience for a limited period.
That is changing now with the Reddit Contributor program. Users will be able to cash in on the fake internet points, otherwise known as karma, and Reddit gold for real cash.
If this sounds familiar, that is because it follows in the footsteps of Musk launching the X Ads Revenue Sharing program, wherein X Premium subscribers can apply to monetize their content and earn money.
Even Musk laughed about it when Dogecoin DOGE/USD designer @cb_doge brought it to his attention.
According to the Reddit Contributor program terms, users must earn at least 10 gold in 30 days. If there is any shortfall, it rolls over to the next month.
Users must be at least 18 years old and live in the US. They will also have to verify their information, so say goodbye to anonymity if you want to make money on Reddit.
Why It Matters: Huffman's attempt at attracting content creators to Reddit comes at a time when parts of the website are still revolting against the controversial API changes announced in June.
As a result, some massive subreddits like r/DIY, which has over 20 million subscribers, are still inaccessible, according to a live tracker.
While Musk's monetization program has seen payouts for several weeks now, it remains to be seen if Huffman's attempt to emulate Musk proves fruitful.
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