NEW YORK (AP) — Reddit turned a profit for the first time as a public company.
The social platform earned a profit of $29.9 million, or 16 cents per share, for the period ending in September, and reported sales of $348.4 million, up from $312.8 million. that the analysts had projected. Reddit also increased its number of daily users to 97.2 million, a 47% increase from the same period last year, according to a company statement.
in a letter to shareholdersReddit CEO Steve Huffman said its new AI translation feature, which allows readers to convert posts between English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German, was the main driver of user growth, especially to internationally in countries such as France, India and the Philippines. . Huffman wrote that Reddit plans to expand this feature to more than 30 countries by 2025.
“So far in 2024, ‘Reddit’ was the sixth most searched word on Google in the US, underscoring that when people are looking for answers, advice, or community, they turn to Reddit,” Huffman wrote. “We saw this in real time when the White House took to Reddit to share critical information during the recent hurricanes, reaching people in affected areas with timely updates.”
While the company’s advertising remains its main source of income, Reddit’s earnings summary notes its recent data licensing agreements They are starting to pay off financially. Both Google and OpenAI have signed deals with Reddit to train their AI models on its content.
San Francisco-based Reddit Inc., whose investors include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, went public in March at $34 a share. Before that, it posted profits in the first quarter of 2021 and in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Since the initial public offering, shares have tripled, rising 42% to close Wednesday at $116.05.
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This story has been updated to correct that Reddit made its first profit since going public, not in its 20-year history.
The Associated Press