Taking a bite out of Google’s search dominance
Machines are getting better at answering questions. But what if you want to ask a human? As Google and Microsoft move towards artificial intelligence, Reddit backs the old-fashioned type.
Reddit wasn’t designed to answer questions. But according to the company’s chief operating officer, Jen Wong, that’s what millions of people are using it for. So, why not lean into it?
The website’s reputation as a repository of knowledge was hard-earned, but it was a byproduct of the trust built over two decades within hundreds of thousands of online communities, where questions are asked, answered, and debated – and the cream rises to the top.
“I think we acknowledge now that there’s really two use cases to Reddit,” Wong tells Mumbrella. “There’s the one that we always had, which is around community and belonging. These are your people. You want to check in with them every day. You’re discovering new interests. That’s half of our user base today.”
