Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says there are two kinds of people who come to the social media platform: scrollers and seekers.
Scrollers are the ones who come to Reddit’s basic product, which is community conversation and involvement on issues that are passionate, from R/Sourdough to R/Popculturechat. Then there are seekers. People who could type in their particular query in Google search and stick “reddit” in the end so they can find real tips and opinions from real people.
The Reddit Answers, the Chatbot of the AI -powered company, which accelerates recorded answers and summaries from existing Reddit positions, is for the seekers. And the first results suggest that it is already gaining attraction.
“Until very recently, we have not created a product for them,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said on Thursday on the call of the company’s first quarter. “These users do not come to Reddit for a community at that time. They come for a response. And I think we can [acknowledge] The use of the user brings us and is more effective in resolving it. ”
Reddit has announced during the call that the product of its answers already has 1 million weekly active users since it started at Beta in December. Last month, Reddit expanded answers beyond the US and Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and India.
The feature, which is still in beta, currently lives on the navigation line of the application as its own special experience. Going to 2025, Reddit plans to integrate the answers deeper into the platform in a few different ways.
Huffman said the most obvious way to do this would be to incorporate the answers to the main search box, which could allow users to type a complete query and not just a few keywords.
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The executive also stated that the company is investigating ways to incorporate answers at the beginning of the user’s trip.
“So you are a young user who opens Reddit for the first time, using answers to see what is on Reddit and find out that Reddit almost definitely has what you are looking for,” he said.
Another “entry point” for answers would be through the external search, “helping [users] Get a more brief or easy version of the release on Reddit, “Huffman said.
This could also protect Reddit from being at the mercy of Google Search. In the fourth quarter of 2024, a change of Google search algorithm caused some “volatility” with the development of Reddit users, which excluded investors at that time, despite profits estimates.
‘We’re an open platform and we want people to find Reddit content [Google] Search, “Huffman said.” Being open leads to raising awareness and visibility. It can also create volatility and we are waiting for some bumps along the road from Google because we have already seen some this year. This is expected in any year, but since the search ecosystem is under heavy construction, the short -term could be more abnormal than usual. ”
Reddit’s stock increased in transactions after hours, as the company rang the expectations of analysts ‘profits and strong users’ growth. The company reported revenue of $ 392.4 million, a $ 61% increase on an annual basis, customized EBITDA of $ 115.3 million and daily active unique users of 108.1 million, an increase of 31% annually.
In the second quarter, Reddit estimates revenue from $ 410 million to $ 430 million and adjusting EBITDA between $ 110 million and $ 130 million.
