Reddit moves to logged-in experience as AI eats search

The platform is shifting to a primarily logged-in experience, marking a major turning point in Reddit's 21-year history.

This move aims to forge a more direct connection with its users while simultaneously safeguarding its data from increased scraping activities prevalent in the age of artificial intelligence.

Reddit's co-founder and CEO, Steve Huffman, stated in an interview on Thursday that the change is intended to elevate the user experience, strengthen the advertising business, and block bots from scraping proprietary information.

Chief operating officer Jen Wong confirmed to Axios that this action does not signal a change in strategic direction, noting the company has always aimed to be a direct destination. She added, "It's just that in the last 10 years, because our [data] corpus was open, we got a lot of search traffic, so that became part of the equation" but stressed the company's mission remained unchanged.

Huffman expressed optimism that this transition would ultimately boost engagement and monetization, even as shifts in traditional search continue to affect user growth in the U.S. He explained, "When users log in, they spend more time on Reddit, and we can we better know their interests, so we can target ads better."

The company acknowledged in a shareholder letter that search referral traffic was "down meaningfully in Q3" and cautioned that daily users could see a "low-double-digit percentage" decline in Q4 if search trends persist.

Testing of the fully logged-in environment will commence this quarter outside the U.S., allowing the company to gather data before gradual, wider rollouts.

While logged-in members gain access to tailored feeds and communities, they retain the option to opt out of personalization. Participation features, like commenting and content ranking, will remain exclusive to those who log in.

The shift is designed to centralize personalization, which Wong noted will bolster the ad business, as logged-in engagement is about five times that of logged-out users.

Huffman admitted he initially resisted the change due to his commitment to the open internet, but ultimately yielded because of Reddit's scale and the growing urgency of protecting content from unauthorized scraping.

The company maintains that most unauthorized scrapes target content existing outside the logged-in experience on the open web.

The announcement coincided with Q3 earnings, where the ads business grew a substantial 54% year over year, and the company beat revenue estimates despite weaker U.S. user growth.

Reddit believes its content will gain value in the AI era as people seek authentic human recommendations to validate chatbot information. Wong stated, "We are a collection of human experiences and preferences that is extremely vast and fresh, and I don't think there's anything comparable to it."

The transition will help Reddit be more deliberate regarding third-party access to its data, as Huffman cautioned that how data is displayed elsewhere can influence the core Reddit experience.

Huffman concluded that the shift is not a reaction to Google Search changes, but rather "about making the best version of Reddit," hoping the changes encourage users to engage with core features like intentional communities.