With artificial intelligence transforming the way we seek information on the Internet, some technological companies, such as OpenAi, are developing their own search capabilities. The intention is to advance and protect against the loss of Google reference traffic, which increasingly offers more responses through its AI mode instead of providing a list of links. Reddit is also one of them, and plans to leave behind its traditional social forum nature to become a reference search engine.
This was advanced by the company during its presentation of results a few weeks ago. In it, Steve Huffman, co-founder and CEO of Reddit, explained that the company reducing the priority of some of its initiatives, such as its focus on the user economy, to focus its resources in areas that it considers that they will generate results for their most urgent needs.
“Reddit is one of the few platforms positioned to become a true search destination”
In this sense, Reddit says that it will concentrate its efforts on improving the main product, expanding internationally and converting the platform into a reference search engine. “Reddit is one of the few positioned platforms to become a true search destination. We offer something special: a wide range of conversations and knowledge that you will not find anywhere else”Huffman said.
From the company they ensure that millions of people visit Reddit every week in search of useful tips and information, and seeks to transform that intention into active users of the native search for the platform. Specifically, he pointed out that his search option has 70 million weekly users.
In addition, it ensures that there are 6 million users who resort to Reddit Answers every week, a tool that the company introduced at the end of last year and that relies on artificial intelligence. It highlights the growth that this functionality, which in the first quarter of the year had one million users every week.
Reddit’s intention is to expand the availability of Answers globally and integrate it more deeply into the main search experience, and thus convert the search into the central Reddit function. As collected TechcrunchThe company wants to unify the main search function with Reddit Answers and redesign its application so that the search box is more visible.
The objective of Reddit is based, on the one hand, on the growing familiarity of users with the search for information exhibited in Chat Style interfaces, such as the one offered by artificial intelligence platforms such as Chatgpt or Perplexity. And on the other, in the human knowledge and intelligence that its platform provides as a result of user contributions.
In this regard, he points out that almost 50 million users visit Reddit in search of their favorite communities, and 60 million people arrive at the platform looking for better answers to their questions. According to internal data of June of this year, 80% of users consider that some questions can only be answered by humans, instead of summaries generated by AI.
“For people, conversation and connection are increasingly valuable and scarce“Huffman said in a statement.”In an increasingly dominated world by algorithms and automation, the human voice is more necessary than ever”
The company’s recent movements are paying off and promoting the growth and use of Reddit. According to WARC data, Reddit’s advertising revenues will exceed 1.8 billion dollars this year and could reach up to 2.5 billion in 2026. In addition, it has experienced an year -on -year increase of 31% in its unique user users daily, which stood at 108 million in the first quarter of 2025.
Reddit’s evolution towards a search engine could enhance this performance.
