Reddit’s CEO says Google’s AI Mode ‘does not drive traffic’

Reddit 首席执行官表示，谷歌的 AI 模式“不会带来流量”。

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in an earnings call today that Google’s AI-powered search modes do not help with traffic to the platform, echoing problems facing other websites and publishers. As part of its Q3 2026 earnings, Reddit revealed that search traffic in October has “dropped by more than 1 million referrals on average per week,” and he attributes part of the company’s struggles with Google traffic to how AI Mode and AI Overviews change the search experience.

Reddit 首席执行官 Steve Huffman 在今天的财报电话会议上表示，谷歌的 AI 驱动搜索模式无助于为该平台带来流量，这呼应了其他网站和出版商所面临的问题。作为 2026 年第三季度财报的一部分，Reddit 透露 10 月份的搜索流量“平均每周减少了超过 100 万次引荐”，他将公司在谷歌流量方面面临的部分困境归因于 AI 模式和 AI 概览改变搜索体验的方式。

“The reality is, AI Mode does not drive traffic,” Huffman says. “Not for us, and not to anybody, as far as I know. That’s just a fundamental shift in how Google works. It used to be a traffic driver, now it’s not.”

“现实情况是，AI 模式不会带来流量，”Huffman 说。“据我所知，无论是对我们还是对其他人来说都是如此。这只是谷歌运作方式的根本性转变。它曾经是流量驱动者，但现在不是了。”

He says that AI Overviews and AI Mode have “evolved a lot” and now, at a “minimum,” push “everyone down the search page.” Huffman also says that Reddit believes its content that’s machine-translated into other languages is being ranked lower in search results, which he says would primarily affect the company outside the US.

他表示，AI 概览和 AI 模式已经“进化了很多”，现在“至少”将“所有人推到了搜索页面的下方”。Huffman 还表示，Reddit 认为其机器翻译成其他语言的内容在搜索结果中的排名正在下降，他称这主要会影响公司在美国以外的市场。

However, Reddit is still a “top search term in Google,” Huffman says. “This doesn’t say anything about the internet consumers’ demand for Reddit. People still want Reddit. It says Google is not sending them to Reddit the way they used to.” He also says that Google is “crawling us as hard as ever, so the demand hasn’t changed from their point of view, either.”

然而，Huffman 表示，Reddit 仍然是“谷歌上的热门搜索词”。“这并不能说明互联网用户对 Reddit 的需求发生了变化。人们仍然需要 Reddit。这说明谷歌没有像过去那样将他们引向 Reddit。”他还表示，谷歌“抓取我们的力度一如既往，所以从他们的角度来看，需求也没有改变。”

To try and combat the search referral difficulties, Reddit is working to make the platform a “direct, sticky, daily destination.” Yesterday, it introduced a “For You” feed with recommendations related to your interests, and in August, it started testing an experiment that uses AI to turn posts into short videos.

为了应对搜索引荐方面的困难，Reddit 正在努力使该平台成为一个“直接、高粘性、每日必达的目的地”。昨天，它推出了一个与用户兴趣相关的“为你推荐”信息流，并在 8 月份开始测试一项利用 AI 将帖子转化为短视频的实验。

Reddit also announced today that it’s going to force everyone to log in, which Huffman claims will be “better for user experience, better for our ads business, is more in line with safety regulations, and more protective of Reddit data.”

Reddit 今天还宣布将强制要求所有人登录，Huffman 声称这将“改善用户体验，有利于我们的广告业务，更符合安全法规，并能更好地保护 Reddit 数据。”