Steve Huffman reveals Reddit's path to 1 billion Users

[00:02] interviews from Cannes right at CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman sat down with executive editor Brian Sozzi. >> Reddit is 21 years old this week. >> Thank you. >> Do you celebrate a milestone like that

[00:15] just go about your business? >> We actually we do celebrate it or we acknowledge it. Um but then the question people keep asking me is what's your perspective or how's it

[00:28] feel? And the answer is Reddit has been bigger than I ever thought it would be since August 2005. So it's just been >> You've told this story before but it bears repeating especially given your

[00:43] big birthday. What made you found Reddit in 2005? And in 2005. >> So in 2005 it was just hard to find interesting things to read. Like you kind of had to

[00:56] know the websites you liked or maybe a blog you liked. But there wasn't a feed of interesting things. And so that's what we wanted to make is wanted to make a feed of interesting things that instead of being controlled

[01:11] by an editor was controlled by users. And so that was the simple idea. Users submit links, users vote on them and our front page is interesting content. And it's just all kind of evolved from there.

[01:23] >> You know, your birthday had me even reflecting a bit too. I had a chat last >> OG >> of the internet. you co-founders tick differently? I mean, you're still here out on a pier at

[01:37] Cannes Lions, a big event leading the company. one it it's the main thing I've done in my life. Two, our aspirations

[01:51] are so big. So where are we today? We're about 120 million daily users. And so we think Which by the way isn't even the biggest on the internet. It's just another nice

[02:05] And we just every day I think chip away at it. Chip away at it. We've been, you know, kind of taking one step at a time with Reddit for so long. I just I I trust the process that if we just make a little

[02:20] to where we want to go eventually. >> What are the biggest improvements you're bringing to the platform this year? >> Well, so on the consumer side, um we're doing a lot of work in the core app, in the feeds.

[02:33] Uh the story for us has been the same for a while. Every time we make Reddit more friendly, more easy to use, we grow. And so we drive growth through quality. So a lot of work there. We'll start to

[02:45] later this year. I think that'll be fun. Um our search product is getting better and better. And then on the ad side, we've, you know, we're constantly, you know, taking iterative steps there, making that

[02:58] product better and better. Um recently we announced some new tools for um for creatives like to to create uh um ads on Reddit. So that's under constant >> What would you like to do on the video front to the extent you can share?

[03:13] video, what we don't do is say, "What's our short-form video strategy?" What we do is we say video Reddit needs What we do is we say video Reddit needs to have amazing video capability.

[03:26] So the horizontal capability, being able to upload, have the player be great, player to the comments back to the feed, all that be seamless. And if we create the video capability and integrate it naturally, then most

[03:42] will invent ways of using video on Reddit. anticipate. And that's how we'll know we've gotten it right. more

[03:54] users onto the platform right now? >> I think the biggest challenge is though Reddit literally has a home for everybody first time, you may not be connected with that home.

[04:07] Reddit is a very broad place and so a lot of our focus has been on that first lot of our focus has been on that first session. So when the user opens the app, we don't know much about them yet. Maybe they've answered a few questions. Maybe

[04:20] Connecting them to the subreddits that we know they'll love. We know they exist connection. Um because Reddit looks like social media at first. Right? It's a it's it's a feed of posts, but

[04:35] it's not social media and so it takes a little time for the user to figure that out. So helping them through that journey. week? >> Well, it depends. So our core users use

[04:50] Reddit every single day. Um but then we also have our second largest cohort of users. Like if you did a a histogram of days per week the two 1 day a week. So we've got a lot of people who visit

[05:04] Reddit, who drive by, maybe they're coming from search and then a lot of every day. There's not much space in the middle. It's pretty binary. So if we can convert those 1 days to 7 days, then we're in

[05:17] >> Your advertising revenue has gone through the roof. I think in the most recent quarter was up 74% or somewhere uh around there. When you talk to the giving you money as opposed to other

[05:29] >> Yeah, so we've been growing in that 60 plus percent range for seven quarters Um there's a couple of reasons why we're finding success here. One is the ads Two, they can reach an audience on Reddit that is simply not on other

[05:44] platforms. Right? About a third of our users just aren't on other platforms. And then, what's interesting about Reddit, and actually surprises me now looking back on it given where we started, is that because Reddit is so

[05:57] naturally commercial, like 40% of the conversations people are having organically on Reddit are more or less about what to buy. should I buy?" They say, "What should I wear? What should I watch tonight? Where

[06:10] should I go? What's the best headphone?" And so, And so, the because the organic content is naturally commercial, the putting ads alongside it is also a

[06:24] natural thing to do. And so, our advertisers here are frankly rooting for us. And Reddit has an outsized influence on the world, become popular elsewhere on the internet, whether it's other social

[06:39] platforms, search, LLMs. And so, having a good reputation and showing up well on Reddit is really important to brands. >> Do AI summaries piss you off? >> Do AI summaries piss you off? >> Do AI summaries piss me off?

[06:53] I wouldn't I can't say that with a when you want them and there's times when you don't. Um you know, if I'm running an external search and I get a summary, it depends

[07:06] But I'm If I'm asking one of those questions that has no answer, next, I don't want a summary. Actually, I want

[07:18] lots of perspectives. I want to see some debate, you know, maybe a little mess, what Reddit is great at. So, um I think there's a there's a time and a place for AI.

[07:31] And I think what's happening is AI search products are actually creating an environment where the way Reddit does things is is more appreciated. Because often-times you want to be with other people.

[07:46] Right? You you want to know that there's a real human being behind the answer and it's their experience you're hearing. And you want that mess. You want a little chaos. I think, you know, that is what our product is and AI actually

[07:59] stand out uniquely. >> You are one of the earliest companies to sign deals with the the LLMs. Um as these contracts come up for renewal with OpenAI and Google,

[08:11] do you expect significantly more money given how fast they're growing and the your platform, right? >> Well, look, I'll say this. We've all learned um the value of Reddit's data throughout the entire AI process. So,

[08:27] whether it's pre-training, post-training, grounding, search, Reddit's data is essential at every step. Um I think our partners can see that, we can see that. I think the world at large has seen that. And so, um we're

[08:41] proud of our place in the in the AI ecosystem. Um nothing to announce on any partnerships at this moment, but they are significant partnerships. >> One more for you and I think uh Matthew

[08:53] about this a little bit here uh on the board work that we are we're over the next 10 years we're going to see just a massive spike in internet traffic uh in a major change in how people interact with the internet.

[09:09] secondarily, how does that impact a business like Reddit? >> Well, the internet is consistently growing. I I if I were to take a take on the future,

[09:23] I think what's going to change uh potentially is the primary user interface for computers. Now that um voice and audio are so powerful, right? You can talk to your computer now, you

[09:37] can listen to your computer now. I think for many use cases that can free the user from having to sit in front of a computer or maybe be holding a phone. So, and I'm sure there are likely

[09:51] changes beyond that in regards to what's the relationship with computing. we'll have to adapt. So, I think this could mean listening, being able to talk to it, that sort of thing.

[10:06] working on right now, but they're on our minds to see like if if computers change, like how do we evolve with it? The fundamental need that people have is they want to be connected to other people around their

[10:19] common interests and passions. So, that doesn't change. But we've been on the internet now 21 years. Everything else in our world has changed, and we expect >> away? I think you and I are around the same age. Does the computer go away in

[10:31] our lifetime? Does the computer go away? I think we start I think it's more of an expansion. more computers in our life. >> No.

[10:43] stuff up, man. >> I think the I think the mouse and the powerful and aren't likely going away. You're just going to get more ears and badges and watches. It's just We we will never be able to escape it.