Reddit plans mandatory user logins to curb scraping and combat search traffic drops

Reddit is transitioning toward a logged-in experience, requiring visitors to sign in to access the platform. Chief executive Steve Huffman announced the shift during the company's third-quarter earnings presentation, explaining that Reddit lost an average of more than 1 million search engine referrals per week in October as AI search summaries reduce external web traffic. Initial testing will begin in select markets outside the United States before expanding more broadly, though Reddit has not set a definitive global launch date. [1][2][4]

The change is designed to halt unauthorized content scraping while bolstering ad targeting and retention through personalized feeds. Creating an account will still require only an email address, username, and password, preserving user anonymity without requiring phone numbers. Huffman noted that visitors will still be able to view the front page while logged out and access shared post links, while the mobile app is receiving a rebuilt, read-only incognito mode for private browsing. [2][3][4]

Reddit reported 53% year-over-year revenue growth to $895 million for the third quarter, with Huffman emphasizing that more than 80% of revenue already originates from logged-in and app users. However, total U.S. daily active users slipped 2% year-over-year to 50.7 million, and the platform warned of potential low-double-digit percentage declines in daily users next quarter if search referrals keep falling. Reddit currently maintains commercial AI data-licensing agreements with Google and OpenAI. [1][4]