Reddit is the latest social media platform to launch a creator fund in the hopes of fueling increased interest and interaction within the app, by supporting popular creators and projects.
Though it’s actually already in place – in recent months, Reddit has launched various small funding initiatives to help selected communities and projects.
“Through our experiment, we funded 13 projects that communities nominated. Projects have included a comics tournament, a community-designed musical artist billboard in Times Square, and a digital conference for history buffs. “
Building on this, Reddit is now launching an official, 1 million Community Fund program, which will see a range of projects receive dedicated support.
“Beginning in June, we will invite communities to submit ideas for projects, events, contests, giving, almost anything you can think of to bring people together for inspiration and delight. We will be accepting nominations for projects needing anywhere from $ 1,000 to $ 50,000 in funding, and selecting grantees based on their creativity, feasibility, and community impact. Until then, we will be building out more submission details and guidelines. “
Creator funds have become a key monetization pathway for several social apps, with TikTok, InstagramSnapchat and YouTube all launching funding initiatives for their short-form video programs specifically.
Because short-form content is hard to monetize, because you can’t add in pre or mid-roll ads like you can with longer video clips. As a result, the platforms have had to seek alternative forms of revenue-share to keep creators posting, which has definitely helped to boost interest and engagement, but has also led to some shortfalls and conflicts due to changing parameters in fund processes.
Reddit’s funding initiative is different, in that it’s aiming to fuel community-led projects, which is less directly focused on in-app content and engagement, and more on community building, and enhancing connection within Reddit communities.
Which is the key benefit that Reddit’s looking to glean from this. By becoming a more critical element of such initiatives, Reddit then solidifies its place as the origin point for such, which will strengthen community engagement, and keep users interacting in the app.
Given the potential benefit, it’s a relatively small price to pay, and it could end up making Reddit a more important tool, in many respects, for these users and projects.
It could also lead to more positive press about the app, enhancing its public reputation, and ideally, attracting more advertiser interest.
As such, it’s a good bet for Reddit to take, and it’ll be interesting to see what projects Redditors look to put forward for the new funding initiative.
You can learn more about Reddit’s Community Fund initiative here.
