Reddit Loses Over One Million Weekly Google Referrals to AI Overviews
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman warns that Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode are sending hardly any visitors to external websites. Reddit lost more than one million search referrals per week in October, and its share price fell significantly.
Reddit has lost more than one million referrals per week from Google Search in October, according to CEO Steve Huffman. Reddit's share price fell by more than 25 percent despite strong quarterly results. Huffman blames Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, which he says now send practically no traffic to external websites.
According to Huffman, the warning is not directed only at Reddit itself. The head of the platform operator said in substance that AI Mode no longer directs visitors to other sites for anyone. This affects not just a single company but the open web as a whole. Every content-driven business model that depends on search traffic is under pressure.
The development hits Reddit particularly hard because the platform has benefited considerably from search engines in recent years. Many discussions that users conduct on Reddit appear in Google Search results and thus bring new visitors to the site. If these referrals disappear, the company loses a central access route it has relied on so far.
Reddit is responding to this development by seeking to reduce its dependence on open web search. The company is currently testing login barriers, meaning content that only users with an account can see. The goal is to make Reddit a direct destination for users who do not first arrive via search engines. At the same time, this step means that some previously freely accessible content could in future disappear behind a sign-in.
The case shows how heavily content providers depend on the behavior of major search engines. When AI answers respond to questions directly, the click through to the source often fails to materialize. For media houses, blogs and forums whose advertising and subscription revenues are tied to page views, this means growing economic pressure. Huffman's warning makes clear that the problem is not confined to a single platform but touches the foundations of the open web.
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