Reddit is a globally famous online discussion platform, aiming to become a real search engine, directly challenging Google's dominance. This move is not only a strategic advance in products, but also shows the ambition to reshape the way people search for information on the Internet.
In a recent announcement to investors, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman emphasized that the company is focusing on developing core areas that can meet the most urgent needs of users. In particular, the top priority is to turn Reddit into a popular search engine, taking advantage of the power of real-life discussions on the platform.
Reddit is one of the few platforms with the potential to become a real search destination thanks to its human-generated content, the authenticity and profoundness that machine tools cannot replace, Huffman shared.
Currently, Reddit attracts more than 70 million weekly users, with billions of conversations taking place every month. To realize search ambitions, Reddit is boosting the Reddit Answers feature, an AI-powered search engine, launched in December 2023.
In just one year, Reddit Answers' weekly users have grown rapidly from 1 million to 6 million.
Reddit Answers is now present in more than a dozen countries and is gradually integrating deeply into the search experience on the platform.
We are merging Reddit Answers and traditional search capabilities into a single search experience, placing the search box at the center of the user interface, CEO Huffman added.
This improvement is to ensure that both new and long-time users see the search box immediately upon opening the application.
In the context of traditional search engines being criticized for displaying poor quality content and relying too much on synthetic AI, users are increasingly tending to add the keyword "Reddit" to the end of Google's queries to find more authentic information.
This is the opportunity that Reddit wants to take advantage of: becoming a search platform associated with trust, accuracy and real user experience.
Reddit is not alone on this journey. Because the company has previously signed data sharing agreements with both Google and OpenAI (the developer of ChatGPT) to expand data access and optimize AI models.
The shift from a discussion platform to a search engine could put Reddit in a direct competition with technology giants but also give users a new potential option.
