Business1 min read

Reddit shares sink on weak sales guidance and plans login requirement test as Google search traffic shrinks

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

The company is responding to declining search traffic by piloting a mandatory account creation requirement outside the United States during the fourth quarter. While third-quarter revenue and earnings topped estimates, an outlook trailing Wall Street projections coupled with falling domestic engagement sparked an immediate market selloff. Management is still determining how much content logged-out visitors will ultimately be permitted to access. Transitioning casual readers into registered members is seen as vital for delivering the targeted ad formats that fuel the core business.

Key points

  • Google's expansion into artificial intelligence overviews is significantly reducing tradi…: Google's expansion into artificial intelligence overviews is significantly reducing traditional search-referral traffic to outside web platforms.
  • Building a registered user base is critical for Reddit to boost monetization via more val…: Building a registered user base is critical for Reddit to boost monetization via more valuable targeted digital advertising.
  • Leadership is actively adapting corporate strategy while negotiating ongoing content and…: Leadership is actively adapting corporate strategy while negotiating ongoing content and data-licensing agreements with Google.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Reddit plans to require all users to create official accounts to access the social media platform, marking a major departure for the site known as "the front page of the internet."

The company revealed the change Thursday as part of its third-quarter earnings, in which it beat on the top and bottom lines, but provided weak fourth-quarter sales guidance. The company's shares dropped over 11% after its numbers were released.

Here's how the company did compared with LSEG estimates:

- Earnings per share: $1.40 vs. $1.35 expected

- Revenue: $895 million vs. $878 million expected

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman told CNBC in an interview that the company's shrinking search-referral traffic from Google played a major role in its planned efforts to require people to become "logged-in" users.

A previous Google search update designed to surface "authentic" content from internet forums helped Reddit grow its user base over the past few years, but the search giant's continued push on AI overviews and related chatting features has negatively impacted referral traffic.

"I think fundamentally that relationship between Google and the rest of…

Business