Reddit isn’t just building for its diehard community anymore. It’s now setting its sights on a different audience—people who rely on Google to dig up Reddit content, not those endlessly scrolling r/popculturechat.
According to CEO Steve Huffman, Reddit users fall into two groups: scrollers, who engage directly with communities, and seekers, who head to Google with a question and add “Reddit” to the end of their query in hopes of finding authentic, user-driven answers.
That second group is exactly who Reddit’s new AI-powered feature—Reddit Answers—is built for. Launched in beta last December, the tool uses AI to surface direct responses and summaries from Reddit posts, acting like a smart layer over the platform’s treasure trove of real conversations. And it’s already gaining traction, with 1 million weekly active users to date.
“Until recently, we didn’t have a product built for them,” Huffman said during Reddit’s first-quarter earnings call. “Seekers aren’t coming to Reddit to join a community. They’re looking for a fast, reliable answer. And we should meet that need directly.”
Reddit Answers has already expanded beyond the U.S. to Canada, the U.K., India, and Australia. While it currently lives in a separate tab on the app’s navigation bar, Reddit has big plans to integrate it more deeply throughout the platform in 2025.
Huffman pointed out one obvious next step: baking Answers into the main search bar. Instead of typing fragmented keywords, users could enter full questions and get precise summaries and answers—instantly. Another plan includes showing new users Reddit’s best content through Answers the moment they first open the app, giving them a fast, informative glimpse of what Reddit can offer.
Crucially, this shift also helps Reddit navigate its tricky relationship with Google. In late 2024, a change to Google’s search algorithm caused noticeable disruption to Reddit’s user growth, unsettling investors even though the company still beat earnings expectations.
Huffman acknowledged the volatility, saying, “We want to stay open to Google Search—it brings visibility and drives awareness. But we know the search ecosystem is going through changes, and it might get a little bumpy for a while.”
That context explains why Reddit is taking control of how its content appears beyond its app. With Answers, Reddit is not only helping users parse its content more easily from external searches—it’s also defending itself from sudden drops in traffic when Google changes the rules.
Reddit’s Q1 performance gave investors plenty to cheer about. The company reported revenue of $392.4 million, up a staggering 61% from the previous year. It also posted an adjusted EBITDA of $115.3 million and now boasts 108.1 million daily unique users, marking a 31% increase year-over-year.
Looking ahead, Reddit expects Q2 revenue to fall between $410 million and $430 million, with adjusted EBITDA projected between $110 million and $130 million.
With Reddit Answers gaining momentum, the company is clearly betting big on transforming how millions discover and interact with its content—whether they’re inside the app or arriving from a Google search.
