Reddit is getting bigger.

Reddit just turned a profit for the first time. As part of its third quarter earnings results released on Tuesday, the company reported a profit of $29.9 million, along with $348.4 million in revenue — a 68 percent increase year over year.

The company hasn’t been profitable at any point in its nearly 20-year history. Since going public, Reddit lost $575 million during its first quarter on the market, but it decreased that loss to $10 million last quarter and is now finally in the black.

Reddit’s advertising revenue grew to $315.1 million, while “other” revenue reached $33.2 million on account of “data licensing agreements signed earlier this year.” Both Google and OpenAI have cut deals with Reddit to train their AI models on its posts.

  • FortifiedAttack [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    2 hours ago

    I visited the Deltarune Subreddit recently and all I saw were people reposting the same tired old “joke” over and over.

    No wonder Reddit is great data for LLMs, the people using the site are basically indistinguishable from one.

  • Tom742 [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    25·
    3 hours ago

    the company reported a profit of $29.9 million

    while “other” revenue reached $33.2 million on account of “data licensing agreements signed earlier this year.

    Only profitable by exploiting “their” content to LLM farms

    • merthyr1831@lemmy.mlEnglish
      10·
      4 hours ago

      So they sold their data for a one off payment and stuffed the platform with so many bots and astroturf accounts that it is effectively poisoned against being a reliable source for future AI data licensing.

      Yeah they’re so fucking cooked hahahahaha

      • Tom742 [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
        3·
        3 hours ago

        This is also “profitable” with some big air quotes, they still have to make back all of that money they lost.

  • BoxedFenders [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    30·
    8 hours ago

    Our entire economy is being propped up by the AI grift now. 8 of the 10 largest companies by market cap are either spending all of their CapEx on training AI or selling the hardware necessary to do it (the only exceptions are Saudi Aramco and Berkshire Hathaway). This is just an insane funneling of money into one industry that can only result in one of two outcomes- 1. AGI is achieved and whoever wields it will have godlike power or 2. there is a market crash the likes of which we have never seen before. Guess which is more likely.

    • sewer_rat_420 [he/him, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      10·
      5 hours ago

      I currently train AI (its a gig economy type job). The amount of money being thrown around to produce training data is absolutely insane. Ill make 10 or so prompts in a day (takes like 5-6 hrs) and make $700. And the projects have thousands of others so do the math…

      At least the gravy train is spilling over onto me right now but im certain it will dry up in an instant when this AI bubble finally bursts

  • peeonyou [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    341·
    9 hours ago

    if google and openai are training bots on that shithole… oh man we’re in for a world of hurt where you can’t tell whether someone is a lib or just a bot anymore

  • PKMKII [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    47·
    10 hours ago

    Both Google and OpenAI have cut deals with Reddit to train their AI models on its posts.

    Training AI to be even more racist and misogynistic, cool.

    • SuperNovaCouchGuy2 [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      23·
      10 hours ago

      Everywhere outside of silicon valley will enact a Butlerian Jihad and a full return to analog machinery within a week of OpenAI releasing their new insufferable redditor-trained chatgpt model.

  • Angry_Stoat [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    11·
    8 hours ago

    How unfortunate. I have fantasies of Reddit going bankrupt and all the shitty takes that have ever been posted on that site for the past 20 years getting lost forever. Then all the leftists on there get herded here to Hexbear (and also Lemmy/Lemmygrad, I guess). But of course, someone would tell the insufferable Reddit masses to “go use Lemmy,” spawning another abomination like Lemmy.World.