Forbes Launches ForbesPredict: A No-Money Prediction Platform to Build Audience Loyalty

Forbes is betting big on audience engagement over scale with ForbesPredict, a new prediction platform launching in partnership with Axiom. The platform inverts the media industry's traditional obsession with traffic and clicks by inviting readers to make predictions on stories Forbes covers—from market movements to geopolitical outcomes—without any money at stake. Instead, users build reputation through prediction accuracy, creating a compounding track record that rewards informed judgment.

The move represents a strategic pivot for Forbes, acknowledging that AI-driven information access is reshaping how publishers measure success. "AI is fundamentally changing how people access information, and that shift is already starkly visible in publisher's traffic," said Nina Gould, Forbes' Chief Innovation Officer, emphasizing the company's shift from chasing scale to deepening engagement. CEO Sherry Phillips framed ForbesPredict as customized specifically for Forbes' newsroom and audience, enabling the company to better understand what readers think about major topics while giving them a reason to become daily users rather than casual browsers.

Unlike real-money prediction markets—which attract traders and carry regulatory complexity—ForbesPredict is deliberately stripped of wagering and leverage. Co-founder Jeff Yam of Axiom explained the distinction: "Forbes readers aren't there to speculate. They're there to be informed." By aggregating predictions in real time without financial incentives, Forbes transforms its audience into a sounding board for journalists, surfacing what informed readers actually expect to happen on stories the newsroom is covering. This creates a feedback loop where audience sentiment becomes actionable intelligence for storytelling.

The platform enters beta in February 2026 with a full launch planned for the second half of 2026. Forbes—which reaches 140 million people monthly across 49 licensed editions in 81 countries—is positioning ForbesPredict as a new industry standard, signaling that the future of publisher success depends less on maximizing pageviews and more on cultivating loyal communities of engaged, returning users.