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.

  • Tom742 [any]
    ·
    4 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.ml
      ·
      1 hour 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

  • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
    ·
    3 hours ago

    I wonder how long it will take for them to actually make back as much money as they lost. You know, actually be 'profitable'.

  • BoxedFenders [any, comrade/them]
    ·
    5 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]
      ·
      2 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]
    ·
    6 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

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      5 hours ago

      It's already insufferable when a smug liberal accuses anyone they disagree with of being a bot and it's going to get worse.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    ·
    5 hours ago

    Too bad it's utter and complete shit to actually try to use now.

    • AmericaDelendaEst [comrade/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 hours ago

      Can't even fucking use it when I have one account temp banned for some actual, straight up bullshit, which triggers a perma ban on my other account, FOR SOME REASON. It is literally impossible to just speak to a fucking admin to get help

      Had a third account. It got summarily banned for "hate" for telling the /r/judaism, or Jewish, I don't remember, to "cry more and support more genocide" when they banned me for calling someone a racist jackass (it was a thread linked here about some nurse crybaby sobbing wailfully over- GASP- A PALESTINIAN WEARING A KAFFIYEH) after they equated said kaffiyeh wearing with "wearing a hat that says FUCK JEWS"

      There's like 27 different layers of automated moderation automatic banning bullshit ostensibly to stop bots AND YET IT'S STILL FULL OF BOTS

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
        ·
        4 hours ago

        A PALESTINIAN WEARING A KAFFIYEH

        Existing is a threat to people that want to see others cease to exist. hitler-detector

  • Angry_Stoat [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    5 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.

  • PKMKII [none/use name]
    ·
    7 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.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      ·
      5 hours ago

      The planet-burning treat printers of the near future are going to also talk like passive-aggressive smug insufferable assholes. debord-tired

    • SuperNovaCouchGuy2 [any]
      ·
      7 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.

      • miz [any, any]
        ·
        7 hours ago

        it would be really beautiful to see people smashing waymo cars with crowbars and bats

        • SuperNovaCouchGuy2 [any]
          ·
          6 hours ago

          this is unironically a necessary step to take because the fucking US government wants to ramp up "intelligent" car production at the behest of car companies instead of investing in any form of mass public transport

  • WhatDoYouMeanPodcast [comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    6 hours ago

    bit idea: sell reddit to another billionaire, they ruin the site, and it finally causes class consciousness to arise when they realize billionaires ruin everything they touch

    • peeonyou [he/him]
      ·
      4 hours ago

      :super-troopers: it's already been ruined! you can't ruin it any further!