Reddit Q2 Revenue Up 61 Percent, Stock Falls on AI Traffic Fears
The earnings call shows investors are worried that AI-driven search changes could erode Reddit's traffic and user base, even as the company posts strong financial growth.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
Reddit reported Q2 2026 revenue of $805 million, up 61 percent year over year, and net income of $253 million, up 183 percent. Despite the strong results, shares fell more than 10 percent in after-hours trading. CEO Steve Huffman cited unstable search referral numbers, and analysts pressed on AI's impact on user growth.
Reddit's Q2 2026 earnings beat on the top and bottom lines, but the market reaction was about the future, not the past. CEO Steve Huffman told investors that search referral numbers were unstable during the quarter, with traffic swings getting sharper toward the end. That comment, flagged by TechCrunch, sent shares down more than 10 percent in after-hours trading.
Analysts on the call pressed the company on whether AI is eating into its audience. One pointed to a perception that Reddit has a user problem, especially in the United States, and asked whether a world without licensing deals with Google and OpenAI is imaginable. Huffman responded that Reddit is a community and conversation platform, and that the company is steadily advancing toward making that value clear.
Reddit's global user numbers are still growing, but daily unique users in the U.S. dipped from 53.5 million in Q1 to 53.2 million in Q2. The company has not said whether it will renew its content licensing deal with Google.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.