Singapore launches ReadSG: paying citizens to read books instead of scrolling phones
The National Library Board's five-year pilot converts reading time into virtual coins redeemable for cash, targeting a phone-first population.
What to know
- Singapore's five-year ReadSG pilot pays citizens micropayments—roughly S$0.02 per 15-minute reading session—to compete with phone use, with behavioral economists arguing even trivial incentives can establish habits if friction is low.
- The program includes Read for Good, a collective goal where 7.5 million cumulative reading minutes unlock up to S$150,000 in charitable donations, adding social stakes to individual reading.
- Governments and educators worldwide are watching ReadSG as a test case for whether gamification and micropayments can shift public behavior at scale, with the five-year data set potentially informing future civic design.
Singapore National Library Board Program initiator
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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International governments and educators watch ReadSG as behavioral design test
The initiative has drawn attention from governments and educators worldwide observing whether gamification and micropayments can shift public behavior at population scale. ReadSG is positioned as an early test in civic design and potentially a case study for other cities, with behavioral data collected expected to be valuable to policymakers understanding what pulls people away from screens.
“This is not a side hustle.”
— National Library Board, Program organizer · source -
When I was a kid, my local small-town library used to have a "reading competition" each summer. They would set up about 10 small interactive dioramas each with a different theme -- a ski hill, a dragon's cave, etc. You'd get a little paper cut-out figure that represented you on your journey through the competition.At each stage, you'd do some…
2 more of the top 3 · 25 posts in this stretch
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Paging @ alfiekohn -- oh, never mind, he's probably getting paged several times a minute about stuff like this:
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I read a lot, and I own a lot of physical books, but I almost never actually read physical books anymore. I'm one of the happy few that used my Kindle for more than a week after getting it as a gift.I find that reading on an ereader is many times easier for me, primarily because I can make the text gigantic and I don't lose track of my place on…
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background
ReadSG program mechanics and reward structure detailed — Only one reading session per day counts toward coin balance, and fifty consecutive days of reading earns one Singapore dollar. The National Library Board characterized the payout as deliberately modest, designed as a behavioral nudge rather than an income stream. A parallel track called Read for Good targets 7.5 million cumulative reading minutes across all participants, unlocking a charitable donation of up to S$150,000.
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background
Singapore National Library Board launches ReadSG pilot program — The National Library Board launched ReadSG, a five-year national reading campaign that converts logged reading time into virtual coins redeemable for cash. Participants log at least 15 minutes of reading on GovTech's CrowdTaskSG platform to earn 20 virtual coins, with a fixed conversion rate of 1,000 coins equaling S$1.
What people are saying 21 voices from 1 site · best of 25 · verbatim
- Sep 21
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I actually kinda like the idea.The money is so small that I don't think anyone is really reading for the $0.02. But if it gets someone to pick up a book instead of scrolling on their phone, why not?Maybe they do it for the reward at first, then after a while it just becomes a habit. Kinda like streaks in apps. I don't really care about the streak…
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I like reading, and I read a lot. Still, I don't think it's right that a public service encourages reading. People must be free to do what they want in their free time, and this gamification stuff smells of imposing values and habits.I'm against this idea of indoctrination of the population by a public entity, no matter which is the habit. I'm…
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There's some private school in the US doing this to reward children for studying (Alpha school I think?), despite it being one of the most unpopular educational policies imaginable — down there with paddling and forced child labor, to great effect.If you have a computer system for realtime student performance tracking (replacing stressful tests…
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Interesting. Singapore certainly tries many things to nudge their citizens to a better life. I also recall from a documentary I watched that they have a system where you get shopping vouchers for logging certain sports activities and similar things (I think there was also some incentive system for healthy food).
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>Paying People to Put Down Their Phones and Read BooksOf course what people are doing when staring at there phones is also reading about 80% of the time. It's more about the quality of the reading I guess.
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My kids would be all over this. Maybe I should start paying myself for reading documentation.
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Cool idea, leveraging microtransactions for literacy. Curious how they prevent abuse or just "gaming the system" without actually reading.
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> primarily because I can make the text gigantic and I don't lose track of my place on the page nearly as often... where if the text is small I really can't follow it. On all my computers the text is gigantic+1 I prefer the Kindle for the exact same reasons.I used to read a lot of physical books. But I can't tolerate physical books after I started…
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Micropayments for reading? Curious if this actually fosters intrinsic love for books, or just turns it into a chore for cash.
- Sep 20
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I read books on the computer, with the help of llm that I can ask questions about the book. That's the best reading I have found working for me.
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I don't think you're one of the happy few.You're more like one of the happy many.Amazon has sold an estimated 70 million Kindle readers.Ebook sales are at least 20% of book sales.I read 60+ books a year. Almost all on my Kindle. My partner and my sister are similar. I know of one person who has bought a Kindle and not used it much.Australians…
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I’m confused by the mechanics. How do they know you’re reading unless you have a device that records you reading while you read, so is likely the device you’re reading on - encouraging people to stare at devices?I actually read on my phone and have since ~2005 and a Palm device. I don’t use e ink or paper much simply because my phone fits in every…
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Such a classic societal fail most people can't seem to recognize. The point isn't to read, it's to read because you want to, not because of a stick/carrot.RMS makes the same mistake in thinking that disallowing proprietary software in repos is better than giving the tools to avoid it and education about what is compromised in the process. A man…
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While books > articles > audiobooks > podcasts > listening to music > TV > short-form content, it's all content consumption in the end, and while that's fine, I think it's a little overhyped.I prefer to draw the distinction at creating vs doing vs consuming, and focus on balancing the time spent consuming (which is a natural part of enjoying life…
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I don't have a Kindle, but I've been reading books exclusively on my phone since I had a 3gs IIRC. I've increased the text size over the years and love having the 2-3 books I'm typically reading at once readily available.
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I swap between kindle and audible daily. The syncing is generally good, byt i have had issues with some books.This alone has caused my reading to skyrocket. I swear i do 1-2 books a week this way
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One thing I do with my students is show them how to adjust text size and have them try out larger sizes. I think a surprisingly large number of people have never even attempted to change the text size on their devices and many can benefit from something different than the defaults.
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For me it's not the phone that's stopping me from reading books but my computer, on which I play games, and browse, and do private stuff.Where I live, electricity price is so ridiculous, I leave my PC off for 3 to 5 hours a day.You get bored after 5 minutes. This is the best time to open your book and read.----Same idea applies for the phone. Just…
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> to build daily reading habits among a phone-first populationReading is fundamental.EDIT: Other skills and habits that you can then build on reading: critical thinking, reasoning, detection and handling own biases, numeracy, financial literacy, and more. All these dimensions are manipulated via phones and the apps on them, so you need a…
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The headline makes it seem more monetary than it actually is.https://www.read.gov.sg/join-the-readsg-challengeIt seems like turning points into money is just a happens to exist sort of mechanic. Enough to write a headline that they are technically "paying you". The real mechanics are much more typical gamification. Like earning xp, streaks…
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Singapore libraries are really annoying for foreigners because they don’t let you use the WiFi.Thailand at least gives you a 1 hour pass.Not that anyone asked but my ranking of public libraries in Asia1/ Taiwan2/ HK3/ Thailand4/ Laos (private libraries are cute, but hot…)4/ Vietnam (Bring your passport!)5/ SingaporeI haven’t been to a library in…