Reddit is mainstream, says Reddit and is looking for advertising partners

People have become disoriented by the flood of information. Not only that, they are apparently also dissatisfied with the current options for shopping and finding information online. Reddit wants to take advantage of this. The quintessence of the presentation at the OMR Festival: people want to receive trustworthy information provided by people on Reddit. A new advertising environment could be built on this.

It is an interface between the search for a product or information and the social exchange, says Jen Wong, Chief Operative Officer (COO) of Reddit. With OMR, however, the focus is not on buyers or Reddit users who want to exchange information, but on the marketing departments of companies who want to advertise on Reddit. Reddit has become mainstream, says Wong, and not just in the presentation.

Every week, 401 million people actively use Reddit, says Wong. According to Reddit, there were 52 million active daily users in 2020 –. This was the first time figures were published in order to be comparable with other social networks and to provide advertisers with these figures. But that's not enough for Reddit, they want to and can expand on this, draw people in further and get them more clicks. Keeping people on the platform in order to show them more advertising is a strategy that is familiar from social networks. As a difference, Wong emphasizes that a large number of "Redditors" are not on other platforms. The platform is also anonymous. People feel safe and are more authentic.

Advertising with user content

"Every topic is on Reddit, so every brand can advertise on Reddit," says Wong. You can advertise broadly or very specifically on one topic. And it is already a natural environment for consumers, they would be looking for information on Reddit anyway. Reddit benefits from purely user-generated content. There are independent communities, so-called subreddits, which range from cat advice and localized news to tips on knife sharpening. These subreddits manage themselves with volunteer moderators. In case of doubt, the platform operators are also prepared to override the will of moderators and replace them (with other unpaid moderators).

Reddit has also got an AI search. However, it is emphasized that Reddit is much more for AI. This includes: Google, for example, has licensed Reddit's content for AI training. The platform's data is valuable. "You can't have artificial intelligence without actual intelligence," says Wong. AI only has opinions that come from humans. Only if people have rated a car seat for children can AI reflect that. "AI has not experienced anything itself." This information can be found on Reddit. This is why Wong also believes that people will not be satisfied with the chatbots' answers, but will continue to look for the source, the community, and visit Reddit when OMR founder Philipp Westermeyer asks about concerns about visitors staying away.

(emw)