Reddit’s new EVP of global ad sales on breaking into shopping

The first full year of profitability is a big moment for any company, and Reddit is enjoying some upvotes after hitting that milestone for 2025. The main driver was not hard to identify: Full-year ad revenue increased 74% YoY to $2.1 billion.

The text-heavy social media platform—boasting approximately 443 million weekly active users across around 100,000 active communities (or subreddits)—is evolving in more ways than one. EVP of global ad sales Stephen Riad has played no small part in that story. We sat down with him to discuss why Reddit is working, its push into shopping, and, of course, AI.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You’re in a new role. What have you been thinking a lot about lately?

We had a breakout year last year, both the growth and the revenue were exceptional, and actually it’s that momentum that really struck me…We set up and service customers right around the world, we’re going faster and delivering more than we have before, and that’s creating excitement internally. It’s nice to be on that winning team.

What do you think about stepping into a role when things are going so well?

Advertisers really understand that community and conversations are what drive decisions, which ultimately is what they’re looking for in some of their goals and KPIs. So the sales team across the board is delivering the insights through community intelligence…I’m also thinking a lot about how we service customers right around the world. This is about how we bring the best of Reddit to advertisers around the world. How do we service them in multiple languages, in multiple geographies?

Reddit is trying to dive deeper into shopping on the platform. How’s that going?

We’re seeing phenomenal results across the board of all segments and sizes. It’s not necessarily one particular part of the funnel. What we also see is advertisers are able to capitalize full funnel, so it’s not just down at that conversion.

Reddit’s conversational layout favors high-consideration purchases. What brands or scenarios are you seeing as the most successful on the platform so far?

[Users] know they’re talking to real, authentic people in a world where there’s a ton of reviews, AI fake slop that goes around. So when they’re there to discuss what sort of running shoes might fit me, they trust the community…It actually helps them go all the way through to converting on that purchase because they feel really good about some of the conversations that have occurred.

Is there data that your team has about how buyers are feeling positive post-purchase?

We do have data; 84% of shoppers on Reddit say they feel more secure on their purchases after researching on the platform…It’s easy to make a $2 purchase on any platform. It takes seconds, and we can do that too, and lots of platforms do that. But buying a car is a high-stakes, one-off transaction that doesn’t occur every day. It needs some thought. We see massive success for high-priced goods and services.

I want to talk about AI for a second. How is Reddit positioned on that front?

People have noticed that Reddit is loved by LLMs, but we all understand why. We’re human, and so the LLMs value that. We’re fresh, because conversations occur in real time every single day, and it’s authentic. It’s real people speaking about real experiences, products, and services.

What kind of experiences are people coming to Reddit for?

What I love about the community and why people go there is the up and down. What surfaces to the top is not the person with the most followers. It’s actually where the community says that information is really valuable, or that post is something that really resonates with everyone that is a part of that community. So people go there because they understand that what they see is actually really valuable as judged by the community themselves—not by any algorithm, not by an influencer.