Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman said the platform now has roughly 120 million daily active users [1].
The growth marks a significant shift in the platform's scale and utility. As artificial intelligence companies seek high-quality human conversation to train large language models, Reddit's massive archive of user-generated discussions has become a primary asset for the tech industry.
Speaking during a discussion of the company's first-quarter 2024 earnings in June 2024, Huffman said the platform is larger than he ever expected when it launched in 2005 [2]. While some reports previously placed the daily user count at nearly 100 million [3], Huffman said that the current figure is about 120 million [1].
Beyond user growth, the CEO highlighted the symbiotic relationship between human-led discourse and machine learning. He said that the volume of organic conversations on the site provides the necessary data to improve AI accuracy.
"There is no artificial intelligence without actual intelligence," Huffman said. "And that comes from Reddit" [4].
This positioning as a data provider comes as the company's valuation has reached nearly $10 billion [5]. Huffman said the platform is the fuel behind the rapidly expanding AI technology [6]. He said that the nature of Reddit's discussion threads makes them a natural place to integrate advertising, while maintaining the value of the content for both users and AI developers [2].
The CEO's comments underscore a transition for the company from a niche community forum to a critical infrastructure component for the global AI economy.
“"Today we’re about 120 million daily users."”
Reddit is pivoting from a social media site to a primary data supplier for the AI industry. By leveraging its 120 million daily users and vast historical archives, the company is increasing its valuation and strategic importance to tech giants who require human-centric data to refine generative AI.
