Reddit’s Scrollers & Seekers
There are two types of Reddit users, says CEO Steve Huffman — scrollers and seekers. The scrollers come for the communities, the memes, the niche subreddits. The seekers? They come with questions, and they want answers — fast.
That second group just got their own dedicated tool: Reddit Answers, an AI-powered feature launched in beta last December. And in just a few months, it’s already hit 1 million weekly active users.
What Is Reddit Answers?
It’s not a chatbot in the ChatGPT sense. Answers pulls direct quotes, summaries, and context from real posts and comments — giving seekers the crowd-sourced wisdom Reddit is famous for, but without the need to scroll through endless threads.
This product isn’t about building community — it’s about information. “Those users are not coming to Reddit for a community in that moment,” Huffman said on Q1 2025 earnings call. “They’re coming for an answer.”
Why Reddit Built It Now?
For years, Reddit’s biggest source of outside traffic has come from people Googling their queries with “Reddit” tacked on — a modern hack to cut through SEO spam and reach real talk. With Answers, it is leaning into that habit and building a product to match.
And it’s expanding fast. Initially launched in the U.S., Reddit Answers is now available in India, the U.K., Australia, and Canada.
By 2025, Reddit wants the feature to go deeper. That means integrating Answers directly into Reddit’s main search bar, allowing full, natural language queries — not just keywords. It also wants new users to interact with Answers as soon as they open the app.
Reddit vs. Google: A Strategic Hedge
This isn’t just user-focused. It’s strategic.
A recent Google algorithm tweak in Q4 2024 hit its traffic — hard. That volatility spooked investors. Reddit doesn’t want to be at the mercy of search engine changes. Building Answers gives it more control and helps reduce dependency on Google.
“Being open drives awareness,” Huffman noted. “But the Search ecosystem is under heavy construction,” and that means more bumps are expected.
Answers may become a new gateway — from both inside the app and external search — letting Reddit present cleaner, summarized information, all still sourced from its communities.
Meanwhile, the Business Is Booming
Despite algorithm hiccups, the platform’s financials are strong. In Q1 2025, the company reported:
- Revenue: $392.4 million (up 61% YoY)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $115.3 million
- Daily active unique users: 108.1 million (up 31% YoY)
The company expects Q2 revenue to land between $410–$430 million, with adjusted EBITDA between $110–$130 million. The stock soared in after-hours trading following the earnings call.
Future: Answers, Not Just Conversations
Reddit isn’t just a place for discussion anymore. It’s becoming a place for discovery — fast, reliable, AI-summarized discovery.
And that might be what sets it apart in the evolving internet: real answers from real people, powered by a real community — even if you don’t scroll.
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