Reddit’s AI play is for the Google crowd, not just the community scrollers

Steve Hoffman, CEO of Reddit, says there are two types of people who come to the social media platform: Scrollers and researchers.

Scrollars are the ones who come to the basic Reddit product, which is a community conversation and sharing on the topics they sympathize with, from R/Sourdough to R/Popculturechat. Then there are the researchers. People who may write their specific query in Google and “Reddit” in the end so that they can find real advice and opinions of real people.

Reddit ANSWERS, Chatbot, on behalf of the company, which works on the surfaces of answers and literally summarizes from the current Reddit posts, dedicated to researchers. Early results indicate that they are already gaining traction.

“Until recently, we haven’t built a product for them,” said Steve Hoffman, CEO of Reddit on Thursday in the company’s profit call in the first quarter. “These users do not come to Redit for a society at that moment. They come to get an answer. I think we can [acknowledge] The state of use that the user brings to us is more effective in solving it. “

Reddit announced during the call that its answers are already has a million active users since its launch in the experimental version in December. Last month, Radhit expanded answers outside the United States, to Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and India.

The feature, which is still in beta, is currently in the mobile navigation bar as its own separate experience. When going to 2025, Reddit plans to combine the answers deeper into the platform in several different ways.

Hoffman said that the most obvious way to do this is to integrate answers into the basic search box, which may allow users to write a full query instead of just major words.

The CEO also said that the company explores ways to combine answers at the beginning of the user’s trip.

He said: “So you are a new user that opens Reddit for the first time, using answers to find out what is in Reddit and you know that Reddit definitely has what you are looking for.”

Another “entry point” for answers will be through external research, “help [users] Get a more licensed or easy gas version from answering Reddit.

It can also protect Reddat from being at the mercy of Google Search. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the change of the Google Search algorithm in some “fluctuations” with the growth of the Reddit user, which led to the intimidation of investors at that time, despite the profit shortcuts.

“We are an open platform, and we want people to find the content of Reddit in [Google] Hoffman said: It can also create a contrast, and we expect some bumps along the way from Google, because we have already seen a few this year. This is expected in any year, but given that the ecosystem of the research is subject to heavy construction, the near range may be more rugged than usual. “

Reddit shares in trading increased after working hours, as the company overcame the profit expectations of analysts and the growth of the strong user. The company announced revenues of 392.4 million dollars, an increase of 61 % on an annual basis, the modified EBITDA $ 115.3 million, and the unique active users per day of 108.1 million, an increase of 31 % on an annual basis.

In the second quarter, Reddit estimates revenue between 410 million dollars and 430 million dollars and EBITDA modification between 110 million dollars and 130 million dollars.