Reddit has revealed that more users and brands are engaging effectively on its platform, driven by demand for authentic, trustworthy conversations in the AI era.
Having reported its Q4 2025 results last week, the company noted strong growth in both user and brand participation, with both showing increased engagement in community-led discussions and higher activity within relevant forums.
This reflects Reddit’s ongoing strategy to improve engagement quality rather than just increasing reach, by deepening participation and strengthening trust within its social ecosystems.
User Interaction has Increased
Steve Huffman, CEO at Reddit, argues that despite the internet landscape looking far different from its launch in 2005, users are turning to the platform for human-centric conversations.
“And yet, amid this shift, more people are turning to Reddit, Inc. Not just to aimlessly scroll, to connect, learn, and research,” he explained.
“In a world flooded with AI slop, people are seeking real community, lived experience, and trusted opinions.”
This places Reddit in a unique position to further brand communities and conversations; by increasing first-hand product experiences, this reduces buyer uncertainty and higher satisfaction with more trusted voices.
“One of the main reasons Reddit, Inc. is the go-to place for community is the candor of our conversations,” Huffman continued.
“This authenticity is rare. And it’s what makes conversations on Reddit, Inc. uniquely helpful and influential.”
And with the increase of generative AI, user trustworthiness has declined across social platforms that cannot clearly distinguish between real and AI-generated content.
Reddit has planned to tackle this issue by introducing capabilities within its platform to help protect users from inauthentic content, as Huffman explains:
“But in the age of AI, you can’t easily distinguish a real person’s thoughts or recommendations from a bot that trust erodes. That’s why we’re actively working on ways to preserve our authenticity and conversation quality.”
This includes informing users when they’re interacting with AI-generated content by clearly labeling relevant post as such, whilst also verifying real people and accounts to support authentic community interactions.
Reddit has also planned to introduce AI that serves community members rather than replaces them, including AI-assisted moderation tools or search features that summarise or translate discussions so buyers can find relevant information faster whilst ensuring human authenticity.
By ensuring users and brands experience human-to-human engagement whilst enhancing AI capabilities, community needs can be served and remain authentic.
Furthermore, Reddit has pursued numerous lawsuits in the quarter against AI companies that it claimed had improperly accessed or scraped users’ posts for AI training without prior approval, protecting users’ personal data for further trust.
More Brands are Getting Engaged with the Platform
Customer and brand engagement is increasing on Reddit, with its advertising platform investments driving both growth and positive outcomes, suggesting brands are now using communities to connect more effectively with users.
This also includes creating targeted advertisements for Reddit users, with some brands restructuring internally to focus on Reddit’s community-centric nature, requiring users to receive different content and engagement strategies compared to other social networks.
“Multiple brands told me we’re reorganizing our social media team to be the Reddit, Inc. Team,” Huffman said.
“They’re really starting to appreciate the differences with Reddit, Inc. and the opportunity that it brings.”
By creating organic engagement to connect with users, this allows brands to participate in discussions, respond to users, and build credibility within subreddit communities.
Reddit has also begun testing interactive ads on its platform in Q4 to allow brands to further drive engagement on their products and events, as well as plans to dive deeper into video optimization.
Increasing Engagement Quality
As part of its wider strategy, Reddit is aiming to improve customer engagement quality and removing its focus away from growing raw user counts.
This means that users aren’t just visiting occasionally but actively participating in discussions, posting content, commenting, voting, and returning regularly.
By making weekly users a part of everyday engagement, this leads to stronger community bonds and more valuable experiences for users.
This in turn makes the platform more attractive for brands and advertisers who want to reach a larger audience portion who actively engage with the site.
Jennifer Wong, Chief Operating Officer at Reddit, explained that Reddit’s strategy is designed to boost the frequency and depth of user interaction, improving the quality of customer engagement but fostering ongoing, meaningful involvement rather than passive usage.
“The real differential is around engagement. So our strategy is to increase engagement… what we want is the weekly users that we have to become daily users,” she said.
“It’s about this creation of increasing the engagement.”
Reddit’s Key Earnings Results
In its quarterly results, Reddit saw brands and users being more actively engaged on the platform.
- In regards to user engagement metrics, the number of daily active users on the site increased to 121.4 million, up by roughly 19% year-over-year
- It’s weekly active users also went up to 471 million by 24% year-over-year
- These results correlated with a strong increase in ad revenue, seeing $690 MN with a 75% year-over-year increase
- It’s overall revenue rate jumped as well in Q4, with a 70% year-over-year increase to $726MN
