As search traffic dries up, Reddit announces it’s shifting to a logged-in experience

Reddit is transitioning to a primarily logged-in experience to protect its data from AI scraping and increase revenue, as search traffic dries up and the company faces daily active user declines in the US. The shift is a response to the rise of AI-powered search, which has led to a decline in click-throughs and referrals for websites and publishers. Reddit's search traffic referrals dropped by over 1 million per week in October, and if the trend continues, the company's daily active users could decline to 115-117 million by next quarter.