Reddit makes a profit for the first time in almost 20 years

NEW YORK (AP) — Reddit turned a profit for the first time as a publicly traded company.

The social platform earned $29.9 million, or 16 cents per share, in the period ended September and reported revenue of $348.4 million, an amount below the $312.8 million forecast by analysts. Dollar exceeded. According to Reddit, the number of daily users also increased to 97.2 million, up 47% from the same period last year a company statement.

In one Letter to shareholdersReddit CEO Steve Huffman said its new AI translation feature – which allows readers to convert posts between English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German – is a key driver of user growth, particularly internationally in countries like France, India and the Philippines. Huffman wrote that Reddit plans to expand this feature to over 30 countries by 2025.

“So far in 2024, 'Reddit' was the sixth most Googled word in the US, underscoring that people looking for answers, advice or community turn to Reddit,” Huffman wrote. “We saw this in real time when the White House came to Reddit to share critical information during recent hurricanes and reach people in affected areas with timely updates.”

While advertising remains the company's primary source of revenue, it is noted in Reddit's earnings summary current data license agreements begin to pay off financially. Both Google and OpenAI have signed deals with Reddit to train their artificial intelligence models on its content.

San Francisco-based Reddit Inc., whose investors include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, went public in March at $34 a share. It previously posted profits in the first quarter of 2021 and the fourth quarter of 2023.

Since the IPO, the stock has tripled, rising 42% and closing at $116.05 on Wednesday.

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This story has been updated to correct that Reddit made its first profit since going public, not in its 20-year history.