• Global daily active uniques on Reddit reached 126.8 million; CEO Steve Huffman eyes 1 billion users.
• Reddit plans to further bolster its advertising capabilities for an even bigger revenue stream.
• The CEO is confident about the company’s position in the AI landscape as it possesses valuable human content spanning over two decades.

Shares of Reddit (RDDT) open with their best single-day percentage gains in nearly a year on Friday following its blockbuster first-quarter report as the social media platform continues to play an important role in training artificial intelligence platforms with authentic human content and doubles down on its advertising strategy.

During the earnings call with analysts, CEO Steve Huffman said, “There is no artificial intelligence without actual intelligence, and that comes from Reddit,” touting the platform’s vast collection of human conversation spanning over more than two decades.

Reddit Going Big On Advertising

The company, which is already in a dominant position of hosting real content and personalities, is now planning to further bolster its advertising capabilities to turn human attention into a bigger revenue stream.

“We're executing this strategy across three areas: number one, scaling automation through our ads platform in Reddit Max; number two, delivering advertiser value across all objectives; number three, expanding the Reddit for Business ecosystem,” said Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Wong.

Next Stop For Reddit: 1 Billion Users

Huffman is aiming for Reddit to reach one billion global daily active uniques (DAUq), including 100 million in the United States, but did not provide a specific timeline. It is notable that the company took about 10 years to reach the 126.8 million global DAUq it has today.

“I don't know the timeline, but we are, I think, relentless in our work to get there. As I mentioned in my script, the strategy is the same… build the best version of Reddit,” Huffman told analysts.

Q1 Numbers At A Glance

For the first quarter, Reddit reported $663 million in revenue, driven largely by explosive ad revenue growth of 74%, and ahead of the $609.8 million polled by Fiscal AI. It reported earnings per share of $1.01, ahead of the $0.56 estimate.

For the second quarter, the company expects revenue between $715 million and $725 million, exceeding the $714 million estimate at the midpoint of the range.

How Did Retail Traders React?

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment about RDDT turned ‘extremely bullish’ from ‘bullish,’ while message volumes more than quadrupled over the last 24 hours.

One user on the platform wrote that the company just delivered the kind of quarter growth investors wanted.

Another user thinks the stock could reach $240.

RDDT stock has lost over one-third of its value year-to-date but has gained over 26% over the last 12 months.

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