Reddit CEO warns AI Mode kills traffic for all
reddit lost 1m weekly google search referrals due to ai mode, threatening web traffic for all businesses.
reddit ceo steve huffman revealed that the platform lost more than 1m google search referrals per week in october due to google's ai overviews and ai mode. huffman stated that 'ai mode does not drive traffic. not for us, and not to anybody as far as i know.' despite strong earnings, reddit's shares dropped over 25 percent. the company is now testing login walls outside the us to reduce scraping and dependence on the open web. huffman sees this as a trade-off between reach and engagement. data licensing talks with ai providers continue, but it's uncertain if reddit will close further deals.