Reddit? The OnlyFans company?

Well friends, Reddit just got downvoted… again. The glorified message board beat on earnings, beat on revenue, and then promptly…

Ate sh*t.

Shares were down more than 20% Friday as of this writing, on pace for their worst day since the 2024 IPO. Earnings came in at $1.40 a share vs. the $1.35 Wall Street wanted, and revenue jumped 53% to $895M (vs. $878M expected). The problem was the piss-poor guidance: Reddit sees $1B to $1.03B in Q4 sales, short of the $1.05B analysts were looking for. Daily active uniques missed too (130.3M vs. 133.7M), and U.S. users actually fell 2%. u/spez (read: co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman) insists “it’s still a strong guide,” which, cope.

Now, blame Google. Huffman told CNBC that search traffic from Google went “down meaningfully” this quarter thanks to its “shift to AI mode and AI overviews” (read: Google just shows you the Reddit comment). He expects the slide to continue in Q4, since Google has gone “from being a traffic driver to whatever’s going on now.” Tell us what you really think…

Friendly reminder, Steve has been here before. Back in February 2025, he told analysts a Google-driven dip “wasn’t unusual,” since “referrals from search fluctuate from time to time, and they primarily affect logged-out users.” At the time, we said any sign Alphabet was about to derail the gravy train sent shivers down investors’ spines. Well, consider it derailed.

Oh, and Google is also one of Reddit’s two biggest data-licensing customers (the other is OpenAI, run by Reddit’s eight-day CEO, Scam Altman). Data licensing, which lives in “other revenue,” rose 35% to $48M in Q3, and Steve says it’s still “in negotiations” with Google on a new deal. You might recall the original pitch: Google gets to rip source Reddit content to fuel AI, and Reddit gets more traffic from search results.

So Reddit is doing what any ghosted ex would do… making everyone log in to see the goods. The company will start testing a login requirement outside the U.S. this quarter, and it hasn’t decided how much logged-out users will still get to see. Logged-in users are simply worth more to advertisers. Meaning, everyone who’s been lurking on r/AITA in incognito mode since 2014 finally has to commit.

Steve also told CNBC that Reddit is “the last platform to provide basically unfettered logged-out access, and that’s largely because of me, I’ve been holding that line.” Pour one out for the line. Later, he told analysts this moment reminds him of 2015, when he came back to run Reddit after Ellen Pao stepped down. Very Uncle Rico of him.

Of course, Redditors are gonna be big mad. Remember when half of Reddit went dark over API pricing? Normally, that’s when the refugees would bolt for Digg. It’s just that Kevin Rose’s reboot was back, baby… for about two months, before AI bots gutted it.

Moral of the story? Hoes Search engines ain’t loyal.

Until next time, friends…

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold position in companies mentioned in the article.