Reddit to require login as weekly search referrals fall
CEO Steve Huffman says Reddit will require accounts to curb unauthorized data use as Google AI search cuts referrals by over a million a week.
Reddit will require users to log in, ending two decades of open logged-out browsing for most of the site.
CEO Steve Huffman tied the shift to protecting Reddit data, improving ads relevance, and limiting unauthorized access via logged-out pages.
October search referrals fell by more than 1 million a week on average; logged-out and web traffic were hit hardest.
Testing of the login rule is planned in the coming months, with Huffman citing select markets outside the US; a login-free “lite” version may also be tested.
App and logged-in users already drive over 80% of Reddit’s monetisation.