Opinion: Reddit Is Closing Its Front Door Because Google Stopped Sending Visitors. The Open Web Should Worry.

SAN FRANCISCO - For years, the most useful search trick on the internet was typing “reddit” after your question. Reddit just told investors that trick is losing its power, and its response is to put the site behind a login.

On its third-quarter earnings call on Thursday, Reddit said search traffic in October had dropped “by more than 1 million referrals on average per week,” and chief executive Steve Huffman was blunt about why. “The reality is, AI Mode does not drive traffic,” he said, according to The Verge. “Not for us, and not to anybody, as far as I know.” In the same report, Reddit said it is moving to a primarily logged-in experience, starting with tests in select markets outside the U.S. this quarter.

Screenshot: @verge on X

It is worth being precise about what Reddit is saying. The business is doing well. Revenue rose 53% to $895 million and net income rose 74% to $283 million, TechCrunch reported, and average revenue per U.S. user rose 53% to $13.82. What is shrinking is the audience that arrives from search. U.S. daily active uniques fell to 50.7 million from 53.2 million in the second quarter, and Reddit warned that daily actives could fall by a low-double-digit percentage next quarter if the trend continues. Shares fell more than 15% after the report, CNBC said.

Image: Reddit

From Reddit’s chair, the login wall makes sense. Huffman said logged-in users are better for ads and “more protective of Reddit data,” because the “vast majority” of unauthorized access happens through logged-out pages. He also said Google is “crawling us as hard as ever.” Put those two statements side by side and you have the problem. Demand for Reddit’s human answers has not fallen. Readers simply no longer have to visit to get them.

I would rather Reddit stayed open. A thread about a broken dishwasher or a hiking route is most valuable to the stranger who has never made an account, and Huffman, who told CNBC he has “been holding that line” on logged-out access, clearly feels the same pull. “As someone whose life has been defined by the open internet, it’s a big change for me,” he wrote. Still, it is hard to say he is wrong. A site that gives its pages away in exchange for visits has little reason to keep doing so once the visits stop and the crawling continues.

Screenshot: @CNBC on X

The pressure lands on Google, too. A day earlier, Alphabet said it was seeing lower monetization in AI Mode, and its search revenue missed estimates for a second straight quarter, as we reported. Huffman said Reddit is still “in negotiations” with Google over their data-licensing deal. If Google’s AI answers rely on forums like Reddit, and those forums lock their doors because AI answers stopped sending readers, Google is wearing down the very supply it draws from.

Screenshot: @verge on X

Reddit says logging in will not mean giving up anonymity, and it is rebuilding its incognito mode. The details still matter, starting with what a logged-out visitor will see when a friend shares a link, which Reddit says it is still working out. The test outside the U.S. is Reddit’s chance to prove a login wall can stay low, and it is Google’s chance to show that an AI answer can send people back to the humans who wrote it. If neither happens, the web’s best free answers will end up behind a sign-in screen.