Reddit, now navigating the waters as a publicly-traded entity under increased scrutiny for revenue growth, is pivoting towards expanding its international footprint, particularly among French-speaking users. In their inaugural earnings call, CEO Steve Huffman disclosed the company’s efforts to implement real-time automatic translations of its content into French, leveraging advancements in large language models.
Huffman also hinted at broadening Reddit’s ecosystem through surprising policy reversals. The platform aims to re-engage with developers by offering new tools, an unexpected move given its prior contentious history in this area. Additionally, Reddit is planning to reintroduce Reddit Gold, revisiting its virtual currency initiatives that were shelved less than a year ago.
These strategies are forward-looking, preparing Reddit for future landscapes rather than current metrics. Presently, Reddit’s performance metrics are promising. The company reported a 48% increase in revenue for the last quarter, reaching $243 million, and a 37% rise in unique users, totaling 82.7 million. This user count encompasses both logged-in and anonymous individuals, akin to how Twitter (now X) previously tracked its audience while publicly traded.
User Growth and Translation Initiatives
During the earnings call, Huffman remarked that 50% of Reddit’s user base is U.S.-based, indicating a strategic shift towards growing its international demographic.
“We’re at a 50/50 split between U.S. and non-U.S. users, whereas our competitors have over 80% international users,” Huffman noted. “This signifies a substantial opportunity for us.” He identified AI-driven automatic translations as a key driver of this growth in the near to medium term.
“We’re currently converting our primarily English content into multiple languages, and we expect this will facilitate faster international expansion,” Huffman added.
Although the site-wide translation initiative is in a trial phase, significant resources are being allocated to it. Huffman highlighted that French-translated content is being indexed by Google, boosting site traffic, with Spanish slated to be the next target language.
Since last year, Reddit has been offering post-based translations in eight languages, setting a foundation for this broader effort.
Developer Tools
It was almost surreal to hear Huffman discuss developer tools, especially given the company’s recent turmoil with third-party developers over API changes. This led to a massive protest, with hundreds of subreddits going dark in opposition.
Currently, Reddit is adopting a more cooperative stance. Huffman indicated plans to introduce tools that could redefine subreddit functionalities. Ongoing experiments include live sports scores and a live stock ticker on the r/wallstreetbets community, renowned for the Gamestop stock incident.
A few hundred developers are already participating in these new tests. Reddit plans to engage more developers from the waiting list this summer and enable monetization features later in the year.
Additional Announcements
Earlier this year, Reddit inked an agreement with Google, allowing the search giant to utilize Reddit’s data. Responding to community inquiries, Huffman stated that Reddit intends to license its data to other companies, albeit selectively, addressing user concerns about data privacy and usage for AI training and other purposes.
The company is keen on building robust revenue streams, evidenced by its plans to revive virtual currency programs. Despite discontinuing Reddit Gold and blockchain-based community points last year, Reddit sees virtual currency as a viable avenue for business diversification. The revamped Gold product will offer new opportunities for users to earn and spend money on the platform.
