Reddit to experiment with AI-powered search results and paid subreddits
AI-generated summaries at the top of search results are becoming a trend among tech companies. Google has its AI Overviews, Microsoft’s Bing recently started featuring AI-generated answers, and now Reddit is jumping on the bandwagon, too.
During Reddit's latest earnings call, co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman shared that the company is gearing up to test AI-powered search result pages. These new pages will "summarize and recommend content," helping users "dive deeper" and discover new Reddit communities.
Huffman explained that Reddit will use a mix of first-party and third-party tech to power this new feature. The company plans to start testing it later this year.
Huffman also hinted at finding new ways to make money outside of ads. He mentioned the possibility of introducing paywalled subreddits as Reddit looks for fresh ways to monetize its features.
Reddit shared its quarterly earnings for the second time since going public. In the second quarter, the company reported 342.3 million weekly active users, a whopping 57% increase from last year. Revenue also climbed to $281.2 million, beating Wall Street's estimate of $253.8 million.
If you have been keeping up with Reddit's latest moves, you probably saw an AI-powered search feature coming, and not just because AI is all the rage right now. A few months ago, Reddit teamed up with OpenAI, giving it access to OpenAI’s large language models to develop AI-driven features for users and moderators. This partnership also lets OpenAI use Reddit’s data.
Earlier this year, Reddit signed a similar deal with Google, and just recently, it acquired the AI startup Memorable AI to boost ad performance on the platform. So, it was only a matter of time before Reddit started using AI itself.
AI search results and premium subreddits coming soon
During Reddit's latest earnings call, co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman shared that the company is gearing up to test AI-powered search result pages. These new pages will "summarize and recommend content," helping users "dive deeper" and discover new Reddit communities.
Huffman also hinted at finding new ways to make money outside of ads. He mentioned the possibility of introducing paywalled subreddits as Reddit looks for fresh ways to monetize its features.
I think the existing, altruistic, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and thrive just the way it has. But now we will unlock the door for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built that may have exclusive content or private areas, things of that nature.
– Steve Huffman, Reddit co-founder and CEO, August 2024
The Reddit community is growing, and so is the brand, which got a fresh new look last year. | Video credit – Reddit
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