Reddit Will Test a Logged-In-Only Site as Its CEO Says Google's AI Mode 'Does Not Drive Traffic'
Reddit said search referrals fell by more than 1 million a week on average in October and warned daily visitors could drop by a low double-digit percentage in the fourth quarter. CEO Steve Huffman blamed Google's AI search features and said Reddit will test requiring log-ins outside the US this quarter. Third-quarter revenue rose 53% to $895 million; shares fell 18% after hours, Reuters reported.
Reddit has decided that if Google's AI answers will not send readers its way, it will stop letting anyone read for free. On its third-quarter call on October 29, chief executive Steve Huffman said Reddit plans to require sign-ins for most content and blamed Google's AI search features for a fall in referral traffic. "The reality is, AI Mode does not drive traffic," he said, according to The Verge. "Not for us, and not to anybody, as far as I know."
The traffic problem#
Huffman said search referrals to Reddit fell by more than 1 million a week on average in October, The Verge and Reuters reported. Reuters said he warned that daily active unique visitors could fall by a low double-digit percentage in the fourth quarter, from about 130 million, if referrals keep falling, and that US daily visitors fell 2% to 50.7 million, the first decline since Reddit went public in 2024.
Huffman also said Google is "crawling us as hard as ever," according to Reuters. A day earlier, Alphabet said it was seeing lower monetization from ads in AI Mode, even as it took AI Mode ads to 10 more countries and reported a search slowdown.
The logged-in plan#
Reddit will test a logged-in-only experience in selected markets outside the US in the fourth quarter before deciding on a wider rollout, Reuters reported, which would end two decades of open browsing. Huffman said logged-in users account for more than 80% of monetization, and argued the change is "more protective of Reddit data," The Verge reported. Reddit licenses its data to OpenAI and Google and has sued Anthropic, Perplexity and three scraping companies over data collection, Reuters noted.
Third-quarter revenue rose 53% to $895 million, ahead of the $878.4 million analysts expected, and Reddit guided fourth-quarter revenue to $1.00 billion to $1.03 billion, Reuters reported. Shares fell 18% in extended trading.
Limits#
- Traffic, visitor and revenue figures are from Reddit's call and results as reported by Reuters and The Verge; we did not read Reddit's shareholder letter or a call transcript.
- Reddit has not said which markets get the logged-in test or when a global rollout would start.