Reddit just completed its second earnings call as a public company, and CEO Steve Huffman hinted at some significant changes that could be coming to the platform. During the call, the Reddit co-founder said the company will begin testing AI-powered search results later this year.
“Later this year, we’ll be testing new AI-powered search results pages to summarize and recommend content that helps users delve deeper into products, shows, games, and discover new communities on Reddit,” Huffman said. He did not say when those tests would begin, but said they would use both first- and third-party models.
Huffman noted that search on Reddit “has been stagnant for a long time,” but it’s a significant opportunity to attract new users. He also said that search could one day be a significant source of advertising revenue for the company.
Huffman also pointed to other sources of non-advertising revenue. He suggested that the company might experiment with paid subreddits as it tries to monetize the new features. “I think the existing, dedicated, free version of Reddit will continue to exist and grow and evolve as it has,” Huffman said. “But now we’re opening the door for new use cases, new types of subreddits that can be built that could have exclusive content or private areas, things of that nature.”
A Reddit spokesperson declined to elaborate on Huffman’s comments. But it is no secret that since then the company has been looking for new ways to expand its business goes public earlier this year. Multi-million dollar license agreements were concluded and and search engines that do not pay the company.
“Some players in the ecosystem have not been transparent in their use of Reddit’s content, and in those cases we block access to protect Reddit content and user privacy,” Huffman said. “We want to know where Reddit data goes and what it’s used for, and so these are terms of engagement.”
