Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that in 2025, the online forum plans to launch an updated search engine that will help users navigate the social network and answer “subjectively complex, [and] interesting questions.”
The company plans to achieve this by integrating Reddit Answers, a feature that allows visitors to ask questions and receive curated summaries of relevant answers and topics from across the platform, into its existing search.
“[In conversations on Reddit] over 20 years, our users have left an absolutely massive amount of information, so we’re starting to unlock that with Answers,” Huffman said during Reddit’s Q4 2024 earnings call on Wednesday. “We will continue to work on this product.”
Reddit CFO Drew Vollero added during the call that the company is recruiting engineers to create a “small search team” that will focus on these opportunities.
Reddit uses artificial intelligence as it seeks to grow. Last year, the platform launched AI translations in dozens of new territories, and this year it plans to launch even more, as well as deployed AI insights for brands. Reddit has also begun testing AI-powered search results pages that summarize and recommend content across Reddit’s various communities.
Investors were disappointed with Reddit’s Q4 fiscal results, which were partially affected by changes in Google’s search algorithm. The daily number of active unique users on Reddit grew by 39% year-on-year to 101.7 million users, falling short of investors’ forecast of 103.1 million unique users.
Huffman hinted that Reddit’s search should be part of the process of attracting users to the platform to drive growth, retention, and ultimately revenue.
