Reddit announced a partnership with Google on a new data-sharing Deal

Google has made its next strategic move and shores up its Search business, via a new deal with Reddit. The new partnership will give Google exclusive access to Reddit’s data for use in Search and within its generative AI projects.

In recent reports, it has been circulated that Reddit had signed a new deal to sell its data for 60 million dollars per year to “an unnamed large AI company”. At first, people assumed that this would be OpenAI, as part of its broader push to challenge Google’s search dominance, but it turns out it was Google, with the deal set to bring Reddit info into both Search and its evolving Gemini models.

Google stated:

“Over the years, we’ve seen that people increasingly use Google to search for helpful content on Reddit to find product recommendations, travel advice, and much more. We know people find this information useful, so we’re developing ways to make it even easier to access across Google products. This partnership will facilitate more content-forward displays of Reddit information that will make our products more helpful for our users and make it easier to participate in Reddit communities and conversations.”

Google has made a clever move, if we consider, that Google noted that many people have been increasingly appending their Google searches with “site:www.reddit.com” to get more direct user experience notes and human insight, especially as on-site product reviews have become increasingly questionable.

The above example shows that by searching Reddit, you can get forum links that provide real, human conversations about products and their features, all up and downvoted to highlight the most relevant matches.

That will most probably add a significant value for search, and in the age of generative AI, where more and more product review sites are employing AI bots to create harder-to-detect fake endorsements, the value of that could become even more significant.

“Google now has access to Reddit’s Data API, which delivers real-time, structured, unique content from their large and dynamic platform. With the Reddit Data API, Google will now have efficient and structured access to fresher information, as well as enhanced signals that will help us better understand Reddit content and display, train on, and otherwise use it in the most accurate and relevant ways.”

With all this direct integration with Google, Reddit will also benefit from it, because is helping to boost awareness of Reddit’s forums across 100, 000 niche topics. With that in mind, this is a great deal that could never have been done in the past, as Reddit once hosted the most chaotic and controversial communities, with key facilitators some of the worst aspects of web interactions.

Back in 2020, Reddit made sweeping changes to its rules, which resulted in the immediate expulsion of thousands of its most controversial subreddits. The goal back then was to redefine Reddit interaction, to maximize its business potential, with a view to a future IPO, and this new Google deal is a solid endorsement of that approach.

Maybe the extra money, won’t be a revolutionary boost to the company’s overall intake, as Reddit has made more than 800 million dollars in ad revenue last year, the additional exposure benefits could enhance the deal’s value, making it an important strategic initiative.

Google and Reddit, partnership, It’s an interesting one, and a significant endorsement of Reddit’s evolving business direction. The platform is still reportedly planning its IPO next month, and we wait to see what it can reveal about its partnership with Google before then.  

Source: Social Media Today

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