Radish is Shutting Down: Another Serial Reading Platform Closes

What the death of Radish (and similar reading apps) means for the future of serialized fiction.

Well, friends. Another one bites the dust.

After nearly ten years of serialized storytelling, Radish Fiction has announced it's shutting down for good on December 31, 2025. This feels like a bit of deja vu after competitor Wattpad shuttered its spin-off app, Yonder, earlier this year.

We can't help but fear that this isn’t just the end of a single app; it might be a warning bell for the entire freemium serial fiction model.

How Did Radish Go Wrong?

Founded in 2015, Radish started off as a user-generated content platform, similar to Wattpad. But it set itself apart by embracing micropayments—a model where readers could pay a few cents to unlock new episodes instead of buying a whole book. This is the same business model that Webtoon was built on and the one that Wattpad has embraced in the past couple years.

By 2018, the app shifted gears. It launched Radish Originals, professionally written serials created just for Radish. They hired former ABC Daytime exec Sue Johnson to helm a soap-opera-style writers’ room, churning out high-drama serial content designed to keep you clicking through. At the time, Radish said top authors were raking in as much as $43,000 per month.

In 2020, fueled by the pandemic’s digital reading boom, Radish saw tenfold revenue growth. That momentum helped it catch the eye of South Korean internet giant Kakao, which bought the company in 2021 for a jaw-dropping $440 million.

Things Start to Unravel at Radish

If you’ve been in the Radish ecosystem a while, you may remember the 2018 content policy change that banned erotica—a genre that, frankly, had been one of its strongest draws. Suddenly, “overly erotic” titles and covers were getting the axe. That shift alienated a huge portion of the user base and creators alike.

Still, the app pushed forward with its Originals strategy, leaning heavily into curated, high-production-value content. It worked for a while. But now? That model is being sunsetted.

2025: Radish Announces It's Shutting Down

On July 3rd, Radish officially announced that it will be shuttering the app at the end of the year. They announced their end of service date as December 31st, 2025.

Radish's closer announcement, originally from Publishing Perspectives

What This Means for Serial Fiction (And Why Wattpad Should Be Nervous)

Let’s be real: This isn’t just a sad moment for Radish fans. It’s part of a bigger pattern. With Yonder down and now Radish following, it’s hard not to ask—is the freemium serial model sustainable?

Yonder was effectively Wattpad’s answer to Radish: a sleek user interface with exclusive content, monetized through coins and wait-to-read options. After closing Yonder, Wattpad now seems to be focusing the same freemium strategy on their main app, with a heavy push toward endless seasons of content in their "Wattpad Originals".

Both apps had serious funding, high-quality content, and dedicated fanbases. But even that wasn’t enough. Were readers simply not spending enough? Did the shift from user-generated stories to Originals alienate the core audience? Or is it just that serialized mobile fiction doesn't play well with this payment model?

Whatever the cause, a lot of apps should be paying close attention to what went wrong with Radish and Yonder, especially Wattpad and Galatea (an Inkitt spinoff), both of which are heading down the same path.

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Radish fans—what stories are you going to miss? Where are you going to read from here?