Reddit’s expansion in India begins with AI-powered answers feature | Technology News

How Reddit Answers work

The feature is designed to keep users on the platform, rather than having them search for threads on Google. That’s one way Reddit is differentiating Reddit Answers from other AI-based chatbots. For example, if a user asks Reddit Answers about “what is the latest Bollywood gossip,” the platform’s conversational tool will respond with a bullet-point list of the latest updates from Bollywood. It will also recommend relevant subreddits and posts on the same topic.

The format of Reddit Answers closely resembles Google’s AI Overview, which now appears at the top of some Google search results.

The social media platform has been working to integrate artificial intelligence more deeply into its search function, challenging traditional search engines.

In another example, when a user asks, “I am travelling to Kolkata. What are the best places to have authentic Bengali thali?” the AI-powered feature provides a summary of recommended spots, highlights must-try dishes, and includes hyperlinks to source posts.

One key difference between searching on Google and using Reddit Answers is that the latter performs better on complex topics with multiple viewpoints. For example, when asked, “What are the pros and cons of living in Gurugram?” Reddit Answers highlights five pros and five cons, providing perspectives from both sides. Each point is accompanied by links to one or two relevant Reddit posts on the topic.

Reddit Answers allows redditors to “ask questions and receive answers using a new, AI-powered conversational interface.”

Last month, Reddit announced a partnership with Google, with the aim to leverage the Gemini tool to help improve search relevance and provide quick answers for users. Reddit hosts over 100,000 online communities and has 400 million weekly active users. Earlier last year, Reddit went public.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, on an earnings call in October, described search as “a key part of the strategy” for the company, noting that a growing number of users were primarily using Google to find content on Reddit.

Reddit has seen skyrocketing growth, in part due to Google, which has been driving more traffic to the platform in recent months, resulting in an influx of new users. The platform has been free to users since its launch in 2005; however, Reddit is now planning to put some content behind a paywall.

While the US remains a major market for Reddit, the platform is now looking to India for growth. Earlier this year, it was reported that Reddit had been planning to open an office in Bengaluru and hire a local team to tap into a new set of consumers.

Founded nearly 20 years ago, Reddit includes a wide variety of forums—known as subreddits—dedicated to virtually every topic, where users can post content and rate what others share using “upvotes” and “downvotes.”