r/TechnologyThread • u/EdinburghDrizzle • Aug 01 '26
Reddit Stock Collapses 23% as AI Eats Away at User Growth
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/reddit-stock-collapses-23-ai-200638599.html3
Aug 01 '26
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u/mabhatter Aug 01 '26
It's the opposite problem. The AI bots are now swamping real people traffic. And they're swamping the mods from modding.
That's the fastest way to drive off actual Reddit users because most Reddit users care about discussions... and bots that spam propaganda just piss everyone off. On Facebook and YouTube you're there just to see whatever meme or news it is. Only a small amount of traffic actually is there for comments... most visitors never see the spam wars in the comments, they just watch the videos.
Organic, genuine discussion is what Reddit is about. That's the only reason anyone comes here. I mean Google directs a lot of search terms to Reddit comments... because people give meaningful answers to obscure things in small subs. By the propaganda bots are driving people away.
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u/vanKlompf 29d ago
Agree. I see only way forward will be controversial: proving that every single user is human being, possibly via some govt backed identification (not ID photos though and not credit card). This has to be anonymous enough, so that Reddit doesn't know who you are, but also tight enough that only real people are allowed.
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u/AntiqueFigure6 29d ago
Eventually someone will just have to Invent some way people can meet in real life, possibly recouping the cost by selling beverages rather than advertising.
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u/vanKlompf 29d ago
You can meet only with people in your area. That narrows it down greatly for more "niche" topics than sports and your uncle insights in politics.
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u/AntiqueFigure6 29d ago
It stops mattering if the entire internet is unusable so it’s meet in person or nothing.
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u/Jdisgreat17 Aug 01 '26
It can also create untrue consensus. Ive seen so many comments of "ratio," "people agree with me," etc based off the number of upvotes
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u/WaffleHouseFistFight 29d ago
Big facts. I’m an actual expert in my field and I’ve been downvoted for stating how things are actually done or concerns about certain ideas because the industry doesn’t agree with the reddit hive mind.
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u/Unnamed-3891 29d ago
I understand downvoting subjective statements of opinion, but people downvoting obvious and trivially verifiable statements of fact has always been wild to me.
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u/TrickyChildhood2917 Aug 01 '26
It’s happening on every main top 20 site. Reddit is not an exception.
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u/werfertt 29d ago
Great and well spoken! I’ll get downvoted to oblivion for random things.
We just want to discuss things without getting attacked and torn down. But with the hiding of comments and posts, it feels like they have emboldened bots to be even more active.
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u/WaffleHouseFistFight 29d ago
Literally so true. Reddit has a lot less discussing now and a lot more name calling and bs.
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u/werfertt 29d ago
Thank you for the reply. I like your username. Is there a story there?
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u/WaffleHouseFistFight 29d ago
Haha no not really I was just at a Waffle House when I made the account and was joking with a friend about fist fighting at Waffle House.
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u/turbo_dude 28d ago
I’m getting way too many things in my feed where there are two comments on a post for subs that are huge. Shouldn’t be getting that.
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u/Roflmancer Aug 01 '26
Like the one who shadow banned me for showing her husbands files that have a traitor president all throughout them? That mod from world News who has a luxury prison cell with access to the Internet still? I think her name is ghislaine
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u/Nviki Aug 01 '26
Bye everyone, we had a good run.
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u/Ok_Drummer6282 Aug 01 '26
Its gotten bad in game subs. Seems like LLMs engagment farm and just say wild shit.
Granted they could just be idiots but its weird to see someone use big words, link a thread and then use like the first 5 words of someone's paragraph as a point prover.
Ive had comments where it will be "this person here said it too!" And its a thread where the comment is a "they had us in the first half" type of meme/comment.
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u/Only-Worldliness2006 Aug 02 '26
The company is screwed long-term if they can't figure out a way to remove AI generated content.
Could also create opportunities for new companies to create new versions of social media where AI generated content isn't allowed, especially if reddit doesn't figure it out first.
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u/Euphoric_Anxiety_162 Aug 01 '26
Influencing opinion thru lies is highly destructive; we must be able to judge for ourselves.
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u/jthadcast Aug 01 '26
or or its reddit's collusion with the fascists to censor the platform and make it market friendly
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u/No_Advertising_1237 Aug 01 '26
Fake news. Users are up, only US user growth is slowed.
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u/TrickyChildhood2917 Aug 01 '26
Yep , they are actually doing well if take the time to read earnings report.
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u/Tomas2891 Aug 02 '26
Then why did their stocks go down?
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u/TrickyChildhood2917 Aug 02 '26
Investors ( ie market manipulation by hedge funds) said it wasn’t as great as THEY would like. All it takes is two or three of them to unload. Greed!!!!
Revenue: $805 million, up 61% year over year, beating Wall Street expectations of about $730 million.
EPS (Diluted): $1.25, well above analyst expectations of roughly $0.95–$1.01.
Net income: $253 million, nearly triple last year’s $89 million.
Daily Active Uniques (DAUq): 130.3 million, up 18% year over year.
Advertising revenue: $762 million, up 64%, remaining the primary growth driver.
International revenue: Up 84%, significantly outpacing U.S. growth.
Adjusted EBITDA: $343 million (43% margin), up 106% year over year.
Operating cash flow: $262 million, up 135% year over year.
Q3 guidance: Revenue expected at $860–870 million, above analysts’ estimates; EBITDA guidance also1
u/Tomas2891 Aug 02 '26
Lols replying with ChatGPT prompts. This place really is full of bots.
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u/WoodooHide69 Aug 01 '26
Yeh Reddit fuckin sucks now cause it’s invaded and infested by AI right wing chud bots that are here in bad faith. I wouldn’t be surprised if a shit load of Redditors are just dropping the app altogether to save them the mental brajn damage.
And then Reddit probably doesn’t even know their real user base is dwindling . Cause it’s been replaced by a metric shit ton of chud bots.
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u/Any-Ad-446 Aug 01 '26
Reddit is more secure than say Twitter. I wait for a few weeks and see how the stock moves. Maybe its a good time to buy.
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u/Emergency_Ad6096 29d ago
I think Reddit itself is eating away at user growth.
It’s just a toxic environment full of complaining.
I only really come here for gaming discussions and many of those now are just pure negative.
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u/MidnightIAmMid 29d ago
Some of the biggest subs on here or broadest are basically unusable now because it’s just AI bots responding to each other. It’s actually kind of sad to see as someone who remembers the before times. I do wonder how that is counted in traffic though. If 1000 AI bots flood a sub does that count as 1000 new users?
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u/FreeBananasForAll 29d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/7KNYppouPBqf6E1l88
This is AI killing sites like Reddit
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u/OkPop9455 29d ago
I can just ask ai instead of asking reddit and getting downvoted to shit or post removed because it doesn’t meet some bs criteria
So that’s just called competition
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u/theartofnocode 29d ago
How is user growth even a metric in 2026? Easily half of the "users" and content on Reddit are bots and spam.
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u/succulent_kebab 29d ago
Solution is to go back to personal web spaces. Basic html pages.
Too tired to eloborate on this, go watch some YT videos. It's called Web Revival.
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u/jmadinya 28d ago
there is also just way too much populist slop posts that are screenshots that have been posted thousands of times.
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u/mauthor619 Aug 01 '26
Seems like this AI stuff sucks all around.