Reddit pushes to become go-to search engine
Reddit Chief Executive Steve Huffman announced during the company's second-quarter 2025 earnings call that the platform is making a major push to transform into a "go-to search engine" by unifying its traditional search capabilities with its AI-powered Reddit Answers feature. The ambitious pivot comes as Reddit reported record-breaking financial results, with revenue surging 78% year-over-year to $500 million.
The search engine transformation centers on Reddit Answers, an AI-powered conversational interface that launched in December 2024. The feature, which provides curated summaries of relevant conversations from across Reddit's communities, has already gained significant traction with approximately 6 million users, while Reddit's core search functionality serves 70 million weekly users
Strong Financial Foundation Fuels Growth Plans
Reddit's Q2 2025 earnings revealed the platform's strongest financial performance to date, with net income reaching $89 million and adjusted earnings per share of $0.45, far exceeding analyst forecasts of $0.19. The company's daily active users grew 21% year-over-year to 110.4 million, while monthly active users reached 1.1 billion.
"Reddit is built for this moment. In a world where connection is increasingly rare, our communities show how valuable human conversation and knowledge really are," Huffman said during the earnings call. The CEO emphasized Reddit's focus on global growth and establishing the platform as "the most trusted place on the internet."
Expanding AI-Powered Search Globally
Reddit Answers, initially available only to limited U.S. users in English, has since expanded to beta versions on desktop, iOS, and Android across nine countries including Australia, Canada, India, and the UK. The feature allows users to ask questions through an AI interface and receive summarized responses drawn from Reddit's vast repository of user-generated content, complete with links to original discussions and communities.
The search engine strategy comes as Reddit has become increasingly valuable in the broader search landscape. According to Siege Media, Reddit became the second-largest website in Google's U.S. search results by April 2025, trailing only Wikipedia. Publishers like the Daily Beast have reported Reddit as a "surprisingly strong traffic source" as traditional Google referral traffic declines due to AI-powered search features.
Reddit's pivot positions the platform as a human-centered alternative to AI-dominated search engines, leveraging its 3.4 million active subreddits and billions of user-generated posts and comments. The company projects third-quarter revenue between $535 million and $545 million, indicating continued strong growth as it pursues its search engine ambitions