London: Reddit’s worst day ever is a warning for every website.
Reddit stock fell 29.22% on Friday, Oct 30. It closed at $91.73, down from $129.60 the day before. That is its worst day since going public despite Revenue grew 53% to $895 million.
The problem is where visitors come from. Reddit says Google search sent over 1 million fewer visits every week in October.
Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode answer the question on the results page, so people never click.
Here are the numbers:
→ Total daily users: 130.3 million, flat from last quarter
→ US daily users: 50.7 million, about 39% of the total
→ Outside the US: 79.6 million, about 61%, up 24% from last year
→ US daily users fell from 53.2 million to 50.7 million. That is 2.5 million fewer, a 4.7% drop in one quarter
It may get worse. Reddit warned that total daily users could fall by a low double-digit percentage in Q4 if the trend continues. On a base of 130 million, that is more than 13 million people.
Q4 sales guidance of $1.00 to $1.03 billion also came in below the $1.05 billion Wall Street expected.
CEO Steve Huffman said Google still crawls Reddit as hard as ever, but AI Mode “does not drive traffic” to Reddit or anyone else.
So Reddit is testing a login requirement in some markets outside the US this quarter. Logged-in and app users already bring over 80% of its revenue.
The lesson? Your content can train the AI, and the AI can still take your audience.
If your business depends on search traffic, what is your plan B?
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