Reddit Rolls Out Contributor Program, Offering Real Money for Gold and Karma

Reddit, the popular social networking platform, is starting a new contributor program, which will let users convert their Reddit gold and karma into real money. Reddit made the announcement in a blog post, alongside bringing a new simplified way to award content on its platform with Reddit gold. Eligible Redditors will receive actual money for their contributions on a monthly basis. Reddit gold is awarded by other Redditors to users for their content on the platform, while karma — the number next to a username on Reddit — is accumulated over time by posting and commenting.

Reddit announced the contributor program on Monday, promising real (fiat) money to qualifying redditors and mods for their contributions to the platform. A qualifying Redditor must be 18 years or older, live in a supported location, and must have a Reddit account. “Once enrolled in the program, redditors will receive payments on a monthly basis. The earnings a redditor receives are calculated based on the amount of karma earned and gold received on their eligible contributions,” Reddit's blog post said.

The contributor program is now rolling out in the US across Web, iOS and Android Reddit apps. Users can head to the program via their profile menu, where eligible users can tap the ‘Get Verified to Start Earning' button to enrol in the program. Reddit has not revealed details about the payout for users.

The company has also brought a simplified way to give away Reddit gold to users. With the new gold system, users can long press the upvote icon on mobile (or hover over it on desktop) directly within the post or comment they want to reward and select from a pop-up of six gold awarding options, ranging from $1.99 (roughly Rs. 165) for one gold to $49.00 (roughly Rs. 4,077) for 25 gold. This will result in a golden upvote in place of a regular one. This feature is only available in select communities on Reddit's native mobile apps and will reach other communities in the coming weeks. The new gold system will be available on Web later this year.

Reddit's new gold system
Photo Credit: Reddit

Reddit is making efforts to reward its contributors months after thousands of popular subreddits went dark in protest against the company's plan to charge for access to its data. Reddit now charges third-party app developers for access to its for its application programming interface (API). As a result, many popular third-party apps for the platform, including Apollo, have had to shut down. Apollo had said, with their current usage, the charges would cost them more than $20 million (roughly Rs. 160 crore) a year.