Jaeden Schafer

I mean, we see Google obviously

monetizing search, but they've been doing that for years.

And so AI and search isn't anything new.

We see perplexity as kind of a big player in this space.

But right now, Reddit's bet is that generative AI is better suited to the kinds of questions that people actually ask on Reddit.

So this is what their CEO, Steve Huffman, said.

He said, there's a type of query we're particularly good at.

I would argue the best on the internet, which is questions that have no single answer.

The answer is actually multiple perspectives from lots of people.

So his argument basically is that traditional search engines, Google, but I think you could even say perplexity in this, are basically optimized for navigation.

They help you find a link or a destination.

And he's saying that these LLMs, by contrast, are synthesizing content, nuance, and then they're kind of showing some competing different viewpoints, which naturally maps to Reddit's discussion-driven content.

He thinks that that combination is where Reddit is gonna be headed.

He said user behavior is basically showing that the strategy is gaining a lot of traction.

So Reddit told their investors that weekly active users for search grew 30% over the last year, up from 60 million to 80 million.

They said that their AI-powered product

Reddit answers has grown even faster.

It went from 1 million weekly active users in Q1 last year to 15 million by Q4.

So Reddit is now investing in basically making those AI answers really rich, really engaging.

And they said that they're modernizing the interface to include more media heavy responses.