Singapore Is Paying People to Put Down Their Phones and Read Books

Singapore’s National Library Board launched ReadSG, a five-year pilot that pays tiny cash-equivalents for logged reading time to nudge a phone-first population toward daily reading. Users log at least 15 minutes on GovTech’s CrowdTaskSG platform to earn 20 virtual coins; the fixed conversion (1,000 coins = S$1) makes a single session worth about S$0.02, meaning 50 consecutive days equals roughly S$1. Only one session per day counts. A companion “Read for Good” goal pools minutes across participants - hitting 7.5 million cumulative minutes unlocks up to S$150,000 for charity - so individual reading both earns coins and contributes to a civic target.

The campaign deliberately keeps payouts minimal, positioned as a behavioral nudge rather than a side income, and builds on nearly a decade of national literacy efforts dating back to the 2016 National Reading Movement. The design borrows gamification and loyalty-point mechanics familiar from fitness apps, aiming to lower friction and create habit through trivial incentives. Critics argue the sum is too paltry to recruit non-readers, while proponents point to behavioral-economics evidence that small rewards can seed new routines. Governments and educators worldwide are monitoring ReadSG as an early large-scale test of whether micropayments and gamified tracking can shift screen habits and produce actionable participation data.