Reddit Trials AI-Powered Site-Wide French Translation Using LLMs

Reddit’s Focus on International Growth and New Initiatives

Automatic Translations to Expand Global Reach

As a newly public company, Reddit is prioritizing the growth of its international user base, starting with French-speaking audiences. CEO Steve Huffman revealed during the company’s inaugural earnings call that Reddit is currently developing real-time, automatic translations of its content into French, powered by advancements in large language models. With half of Reddit’s audience based in the U.S., Huffman sees a significant opportunity to increase the proportion of international users, noting that their peers have 80-90% non-U.S. users. The company is investing heavily in this site-wide translation effort, which is still in the testing phase, and plans to tackle Spanish next.

Courting Developers with New Tools

In a surprising move, given Reddit’s recent clash with third-party client developers over API changes, Huffman discussed plans to introduce developer tools that could “push the boundaries of what a subreddit can be.” Examples of ongoing experiments include live scores on sports subreddits and a live stock ticker on r/wallstreetbets, the subreddit famous for the Gamestop stock saga. A few hundred developers are currently testing these new experiences, with plans to include more from the waitlist this summer and enable monetization features later in the year.

Licensing Data and Revamping Virtual Currency

Reddit recently signed a deal with Google to allow the search engine giant to use the social network’s data, and Huffman confirmed plans to license data to other companies as well. Despite the controversial nature of user data usage, Huffman insisted that Reddit is being “considerate and selective” in choosing partners. Additionally, the company is focusing on building infrastructure for revenue generation, including the reintroduction of a “revamped” Gold product, which will enable users to spend and earn money on the platform, despite having previously discontinued Gold and blockchain-based community points last year.

Positive Financial Results and User Growth

Reddit’s recent financial results are encouraging, with revenue in the last quarter increasing 48% year-over-year to $243 million and unique users growing 37% to 82.7 million, which includes both logged-in and logged-out users. These growth instruments were recently mentioned by Reddit CPO Pali Bhat in an interview with The Zero Byte, and the company is now taking steps to leverage them for future growth.