Reddit stock plunges 29.2% as Google AI cuts US traffic

Reddit shares plunged 29.2% on Friday, October 30, after the company said its U.S. audience is shrinking, a slide TheStreet ties directly to Google's AI search features.

The damage centers on traffic quality. Google's changes are cutting U.S. visits to Reddit, with the hit concentrated among logged-out users, the visitors who arrive from search rather than through an existing account. The pressure is on the top of the funnel, where Google's search results drive discovery.

A 29.2% single-session drop is a repricing event, not routine volatility. The market is reacting to a company acknowledging that its U.S. audience is contracting, and to the named cause: Google's AI search features diverting clicks that previously landed on Reddit.

Interpretation: the logged-out detail matters because those users depend on Google referrals. If AI-generated answers satisfy queries on the results page, fewer searchers ever reach Reddit. That makes the problem structural, tied to Google's product decisions rather than to Reddit's own execution, and it is harder to fix on a quarterly timeline.

The closing price on October 30 now becomes the reference level for the next move. Traders should expect the stock to be treated as a story about search-platform dependence, not just one weak print.