Reddit Just Killed r/all – and Your Feed Will Never Be the Same

Reddit permanently removed r/all in early April 2025 after tests beginning December 2024 (mobile removal in Jan 2025, desktop sidebar changes by Feb 2025), replacing it with a machine-learning personalized Home feed. The company also launched text-optimized Read and video-focused Watch feeds and tightened under-18 privacy defaults; the changes aim to increase time-on-site via algorithmic curation but reduce serendipitous discovery and risk user dissatisfaction and echo-chamber effects.

Analysis

Algorithmic curation shifts the monetization lever from breadth (virality across many small communities) to depth (higher dwell and more predictable ad impressions per user). If personalization raises time-on-site by a modest 10-25% and CPMs by 15-30% (benchmarks from other feed-first platforms), Reddit can offset modest DAU churn and still increase short-term revenue per MAU; expect the first visible revenue inflection within 2-6 quarters as ad buyers refresh deals.

But the engineering and content-moderation bill rises faster than the headline uplift. Continuous low-latency inference at scale and A/B experimentation require meaningful GPU/cloud spend and ML ops headcount — ballpark incremental monthly costs could be in the single-digit millions to low tens of millions for a mid-sized feed rollout, pressuring gross margins in the next 1-4 quarters unless offset by ad yield. Simultaneously, reducing organic discovery removes the platform’s long-tail content supplier model, creating a measurable second-order risk: fewer viral breakout creators and fewer unique entry points for new users, which can depress DAU growth over 6-24 months.

The consensus is focused on cultural backlash; the contrarian case is that Reddit is deliberately trading some cultural uniqueness to create a modern, sellable ad product and reduce seller-side variance. A simple sensitivity shows that a 5% DAU decline paired with a 20% ARPU lift nets ~13% revenue growth — a plausible path to multiple expansion if execution is clean and advertiser ROI data improves. Key watchables: week-over-week ARPU, CPMs on new Home feed placements, inference spend line items, and creator churn metrics over the next 3-12 months.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Short RDDT equity or buy 9-12 month puts (target 10-25% OTM) — thesis: community alienation + higher ops costs compress margins and DAU; sizing small (1-3% net portfolio) with stop-loss if ARPU beats consensus by >15% in two consecutive quarters. Risk/Reward: asymmetric — limited premium for puts vs. potential 20-40% equity downside over 6-12 months if advertising weakens.
• Buy NVDA 6-12 month call spread to express higher GPU/inference demand (buy nearer-term call, sell higher strike to fund premium) — thesis: cloud + on-prem GPU spend rises with feed personalization projects across mid-cap social apps. Risk/Reward: capped upside but favorable if NVDA revenue beats due to sustained inference spend; keep spread width moderate to control drawdown.
• Pair trade — long META (or SNAP) vs short RDDT over 3-9 months — thesis: ad dollars move to larger, measurement-friendly platforms if Reddit underdelivers on advertiser ROI. Size to be market-neutral sector exposure; risk is macro ad slowdown that hurts both sides.
• Long AMZN or GOOGL cloud exposure via 9-18 month call options or buy-and-hold — thesis: cloud providers capture incremental inference spend and managed ML services demand. Risk/Reward: steady secular tailwind; downside if macro capex collapse reduces cloud spend in next two quarters.