Oct 30 (Reuters) - Reddit shares tumbled 29% on Friday, marking their biggest single-day drop and hitting their lowest level in over a year, after the company warned that Google’s AI-powered search was hurting referral traffic and could shrink its user base.

The online discussion platform still appears in Google search results but is attracting fewer clicks, as users increasingly rely on the tech giant’s AI tools for direct answers.

“When more than a million search referrals a week disappear because Google’s AI answers the question itself, investors are no longer looking just at the next three or four months, but at how much of Reddit’s audience it will really own in the years ahead,” said Vitor Madeira, senior market specialist at Capital.com.

Reddit warned that its daily active unique visitors could fall by a low double-digit percentage in the fourth quarter if referral traffic kept declining.

If current losses hold, Reddit is set to lose more than $7 billion in market value and Pinterest about $900 million. The two stocks have fallen about 44% and 23%, respectively, this year through their last close.

Reddit has a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03, compared with Snap’s 7.53 and Pinterest’s 8.48, according to LSEG data.

Separately, Reddit on Friday said it has extended its cloud services agreement with Google through 2029, committing to spend $580 million over three years.

At least 11 brokerages cut their price targets on Reddit, and at least 13 did so on Pinterest.

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
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    53 minutes ago

    It’s still surprising to me that 2 years later, it’s still double the value it was when it went public.

    There was never any believable story where they would go public and become profitable.

  • Kyden Fumofly@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Whats the point to appear in google search, when you gonna lock your platform to have accounts to view the content… Just asking.

  • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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    9 hours ago

    they hurt thier own traffic by banning users, and the people who use accounts to earn money through the site or OF in general, and not the propaganda bots.

  • MangioneDontMiss@feddit.nl
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    10 hours ago

    reddit is basically nothing but a less featured facebook at this point. theyve killed and stifled real news and genuine discussion. all it is anymore is memes and gooner material.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      51 minutes ago

      It’s a pseudonymous Facebook. I still think that the Internet is better when people aren’t using their own real names.

  • a_jeering_serpent@sopuli.xyz
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    14 hours ago

    “a low double-digit percentage“ sure is a funny way to say 10-49%, and that since it represents fully 40% of the possible values (also known as ”a low double-digit percent”) it is a worthless non statement.

    • DrunkenDuckling@lemmus.org
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      5 hours ago

      Listen to some of their q3 earnings report if youre bored. Its obvious this little forum admin spez is way out of his depth/ competence

  • Blaster M@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    Too many people block ads on reddit -> block the api -> people use google search and vpns -> block search and vpns unless logged in -> people use ai instead of search to find reddit answers because reddit blocks everything –> block access even harder -> complain no one visits the site anymore -> [we are here]

      • zen@lemmy.zip
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        19 hours ago

        Yep they hand out auto suspends and bans like it’s free candy.

        • zeejoo@thelemmy.club
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          19 hours ago

          I once got permabanned for harassment because I called a dude a dumbass in 2 different threads on a very small <1k daily users subreddit and they said I was “following him” and making “personal attacks”

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        19 hours ago

        Oh yes, I know of that very well. The admins have crazy trigger fingers.

        Also, the experience of new users is just utter garbage. When I finally successfully sidestepped their detection of ban evasion (clear cookies + random user agent + VPN), I noticed how terrible the new-user experience is. I am supposed to gain karma to post anything, but I can’t get karma, because my account is too new and every post and comment is hidden or automatically removed. ??? BUT THE ACTUAL BOTS ARE JUST GIVING EACHOTHER KARMA! This bot prevention bullshit hurts only humans. Utter garbage website, it’s doomed, but I wish it’d die faster.

        • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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          9 hours ago

          i created an acc after 1+years of ashadowbanned, i only occasionaly go on niche subs, then after a while i use powersuite to nuke the comments.

      • lepthesr@sh.itjust.works
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        20 hours ago

        I honestly don’t know anyone that does anymore. I tried the bs for about 5 sec before I get prompted for ads for their app.

        Not sure how that pops up with origin

        • zeejoo@thelemmy.club
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          19 hours ago

          I still log in every now and then on a browser to read the sports subs because lemmy sucks for that, but I refuse to install that cancer of an app.

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            48 minutes ago

            I agree Lemmy sucks for sports subs, but I refuse to log in to Reddit. Because I refuse to login it has basically become unusable – so I don’t use it.

    • Bobby Turkalino@sh.itjust.works
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      20 hours ago

      That damn “better on the app” popup completely freezes Firefox Focus on iOS.

      There are times where I search something, there appears to be a reddit thread with a descriptive answer so I tap on it, I scroll down a couple swipes and boom, popup freezes the app. Can’t do anything to make the back button appear after scrolling hid it. All I can do is force close.

    • Thales@sh.itjust.works
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      13 hours ago

      You say that…

      I still use the app for 1 specific thing and let me tell you the iOS app (presumably their largest audience) is GARBAGE. And it gets worse every single release.

      The latest release has a dead zone (!) in the list view. You’ll click a row/item and nothing happens. It only occurs after using the app for a bit and only in certain vertical place (about 20% down from the top). You have to scroll the list to be to click that item. Hilarious.

      Of course all of this is on top the numerous other bugs.

      Chrstian - ONE FUCKING GUY - made a superior app by himself. What did PewDiePie say, “it’s evolving, only backwards.”

      • Krudler@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        I think it took them 4 years to get their video player working too. A video player.

        • DrunkenDuckling@lemmus.org
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          5 hours ago

          Their video player working would be news to me in 2026. I still have to download most videos in order to watch them.

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            40 minutes ago

            Ugh, on the theme of media, their image-hosting is so incredibly user-hostile.

            I used image search to find something the other day, and the one I wanted was hosted on Reddit. But, it was impossible to see the whole image because Reddit insisted that the only way to see the image was with the whole forum around it, and the image resized to fit that view, with the top and bottom of the image cropped out. There was no way to actually see the full image with the top and bottom visible on Reddit. I had to actually download the image to see that part.

      • OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        They’re appealing to a different generation users. New reddit users think old reddit is ancient outdated design. They like the new design because it’s oriented to the internet generation that uses mobile UIs.

        • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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          9 hours ago

          its for the tiktok generation. this actually goes way back, when they were doing doomscrolling on another platform i was in before it was permanently shuttled.

        • steelplatedmech@piefed.ca
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          12 hours ago

          I hate it on browser too and is why I use redlib. So much wasted space with side padding filled with useless stuff on an already small screen.

        • atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone
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          6 hours ago

          Do people on lemmy have memory loss? This isnt the first time someone claimed something old is actually new

          People have been saying that the reddit app is unusable when the API pricing was announced

          • noodlejetski (he/him)@piefed.social
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            4 hours ago

            it’s always been total garbage, especially compared to the third party apps. some of them supported some native reddit features better than the official app.

        • tempest@lemmy.ca
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          10 hours ago

          Yeah old Reddit was locked up a few months ago. They don’t want people scraping and most new users use the ‘new’ interface.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      That might actually be an active strategy.
      Making the UI worse so people have to click around more. Makes opportunity for more advertising, and makes it look like people are engaging more.
      Never really thought about it that way.

  • GrumpyGrampa@lemmy.zip
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    18 hours ago

    Nobody to blame BUT REDDIT! Got to the point that their bots banned you while you were even typing your comment before posting………so PC that they became useless!

    • CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      It didn’t even have to be politically correct. I made a celeb gossip joke about Kanye West and got permabanned for “insighting violence” like what?? Did they think Kanye was reading my comments and taking them as personal advice?

    • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      You cant post in this community until you post somewhere else for a week and get x amount of karma.

      In every subreddit of any interest or else so niche you can gather the necessary Karma

  • AreaKode@riskeratspizza.com
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    22 hours ago

    The only way to build a profitable business today is to make it either: A) a scam, or B) gambling. Which to you think this one was?

    If you guessed A) a scam, you are correct!

    We are currently in the “dump” phase of the pump and dump.