Reddit blames Google AI Mode for a million lost search referrals a week
Reddit's search referrals fell by more than 1 million a week on average during October, after a third quarter in which search traffic was already down meaningfully. The company told shareholders the decline accelerated late in the quarter and has carried into the current one.
CEO Steve Huffman said the largest part of Reddit's working hypothesis is Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, which he said Google appears to be expanding aggressively. He added that AI Mode does not drive traffic, for Reddit or, as far as he knows, for anyone else. A second, smaller factor is machine-translated content that Reddit believes is being ranked lower, mostly outside the US.
Reddit's global daily active uniques held at 130.3 million between the second and third quarters, but US figures fell from 53.2 million to 50.7 million, driven by logged-out users dropping from 30.1 million to 27.3 million. The company warned that if the October rate continues, total daily active uniques could fall by a low-double-digit percentage in the fourth quarter.
Reddit also plans to test a logged-in-only version of the site in selected markets outside the US this quarter, partly to decide how much of a thread a visitor arriving from search can read before a login prompt. COO Jen Wong said Reddit is sceptical of generative engine optimisation and that it is not part of its advertiser partnerships today. For brands relying on Reddit threads to surface in AI answers, the test markets will show how much of that content stays publicly readable.
Reported by Search Engine Journal ↗
Topics: AI Overviews, AI Mode, Google Search