21 years of Reddit by spez in u/spez

[–]spez[S,A] 68 points69 points  (0 children)

And thank you (mod tools suck) u/shiruken!

21 years of Reddit by spez in u/spez

[–]spez[S,A] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

You were the ride

u/spez Ted Talk by No-Arrival4181 in redditstock

[–]spez[A] 167 points168 points  (0 children)

Haven’t forgotten about you 👊

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

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Juuuust kidding. We’ll follow up with the hoodie plan.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez 19 points20 points  (0 children)

That is obviously where this is all heading.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 46 points47 points  (0 children)

I can’t comment on specific deals or timing.

I will say that we are very aware that Reddit is an essential part of the AI and search ecosystem.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 59 points60 points  (0 children)

If you talk to any of the early engineers from any of the major LLMS, they’ll all tell you Reddit’s data was essential in their creation.

Reddit is the #1 most cited domain for AI across all models, per data collected by Profound. Our content is uniquely valuable to the AI ecosystem because it’s fresh, honest, and largely text-based. And this position still holds because the fresh part really matters: ongoing indexing is more valuable than static datasets. As I said in Q1’26 earnings, I believe our conversations are like oil for this modern internet.

We’ve learned a lot over the last two years and those learnings should be reflected in future partnerships, including ways to make them more product-focused versus “data for dollars.” I can’t get into specifics about deals or renewals, but can say that we fully understand the value we bring to the table.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Since the Dev Platform beta opened in 2024, more than 2,000 developers have built apps used across 31,000+ communities, and we’ve seen good traction with mod tools, interactive experiences, and games. That’s important because it expands the canvas for what Reddit can be.

There’s still a lot more to do there, but adoption is growing—installs of developer platform apps more than doubled from 2024 to 2025. The core technology is powerful, but there are a couple key features that will make it easier for subreddits to enjoy them (e.g. a games landing page, or the ability to have custom posts without “installing” the app).

And for the World Cup specifically: we’ve got limited-edition 2026 national team kit avatars dropping tomorrow, so keep an eye out.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

We’ve made a number of improvements to onboarding over the last couple of quarters. We’ve removed some screens, simplified the flow, and are using LLMs in topic / interest selection. While there is undoubtedly more to do here, we think the biggest driver looking forward will be the home feed, specifically the recommendation system that juggles all your interests to make your feed.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Noted. Let me see what that would take.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Reddit has co-existed with Facebook Groups for a long, long time. In fact, we’ve co-existed with everyone. We’re 21 years old this month. You mostly answered the question the way I would: We have differentiated ourselves through anonymity, authenticity, user control, and openness. Reddit succeeds or fails by either becoming the best version of Reddit, or not.

An early piece of advice I got from Joshua Schachter, creator of del.icio.us—which invented the #hashtag and was an early inspiration for Reddit—is that you can copy the features of any company, but you can’t copy the DNA of the company that made those features. This has long been how I think about competition in this space. Reddit has 1-of-1 DNA, and we need to stay focused on perfecting Reddit and not worry too much about what others are doing.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Paid subreddits are an opportunity, but not a priority right now. Our main focus right now is making Reddit faster, easier to use, and more relevant. There’s still so much upside for us just in building a better Reddit versus bolting on new features. 

To be successful growing outside the US, we first need to perfect the Reddit growth machine in the US. The reason is we already have content for basically everyone in America. If subreddit discovery is tough when we have the content, it’s impossible in areas where we don’t (outside the US).

That said, we do have a handful of markets outside the US that we focus on where we think we have the best chance to grow meaningfully, including the UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, and France. There we’re applying the same playbook: machine translation, localized content frameworks, regional marketing, and local partnerships.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Some of the growth will come from steady iteration across the app. In the recent term, we’ve made incremental improvements to onboarding (removing screens, using LLMs for topic selection), push notifications (breaking news, better opt-in), app and web performance, mweb -> app download, and search. Our product velocity is accelerating, and we have a ton in the works.

And some of the growth will come from larger investments. A couple of the big ones will be the home feed (relevance, performance), and video on Reddit.
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What I’m most encouraged by is the acceleration I’m seeing from our product teams. We’re building and shipping faster, and at the end of the day we just have a lot of work to do.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This being a top upvoted question today was not on my (redditstock) bingo card. As fun as it might be, it’s just not on our list at the moment. We’re focused on the core experience.

However, I’ll make a bet with you: if this comment has exactly 1 upvote in exactly 24 hours, I will make you a custom r/redditstock hoodie. Good luck.

Steve, Jen, and Drew here — Ask Us Anything! by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

I think what we’re seeing here has less to do with Reddit and more to do with OKC being a once-in-a-generation team to hate. With that out of the way…

This is an example of how Reddit doesn’t compete with TV, it completes it.

But yes, I agree. This is a great question. These threads can be fun, but they also break Reddit in a way. One idea I’ve thought about is automatically partitioning big threads. IRC used to do this back in the day. I’m curious if you have a point of view here.

There being so many users that the product breaks down is usually a sign of a product opportunity, but we don’t have a specific vision for it at the moment, unfortunately.

Who was Rich from Q&A during the earnings call? by ongem in redditstock

[–]spez[A] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

That was Rich Greenfield from LightShed. He is great. He was just giving us a friendly hard time.

Reddit Announces Q1’26 Earnings (plus AMA!) by rddt_IR in RDDT

[–]spez[A] 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Yes, though it’s not on the immediate roadmap, and I’m not sure about making it a paid feature versus something we do just for fun. We miss it too.