[TillE]

When a person searches for something and clicks a Reddit link, Reddit instantly knows exactly what that person wants. Advice about which widget to buy, or how to solve a problem or whatever. That seems like an incredibly valuable data point for advertisers, way more so than vague guesses about demographics.

Is the ad business so bad these days that they can't effectively monetize this? It seems like they're flailing around in desperation instead of leveraging their core advantages.

[johnnyanmac]

From what I hear, ads got hit just as hard as tech did during the 2023 purge. The answer could be as simple as ad networks being very careful on where/what to ad, if not outright shuttering. So this (poor) attempt from Reddit is some way to be self-sufficient.

[marklubi]

The paywalls are just a way for them to let the unsavory/porn sections of the website remain while appeasing investors