Durgesh Kaushik breaks down Reddit’s ad strategy

In India, internet users’ digital content consumption can seem chaotic. A 24-year-old software engineer could be in a heated discussion about MS Dhoni's captaincy legacy with someone from Chennai, while simultaneously helping a college student in Pune prepare for their JEE exams. By evening, they could have moved on to debating the cinematography of a regional film with cinephiles from Kolkata, and before bed, they could be sharing their grandmother's recipe for rajma with food enthusiasts across the country. While India has no shortage of social media platforms, often, these conversations could be unfolding on niche communities on Reddit. 

This scene plays out millions of times across India, where the country's inherent love for community discussions has found an unexpected digital sanctuary. From morning cricket highlights to late-night Bollywood gossip, the country has a voracious appetite for niche communities. This hyperlocal behaviour demands platforms that understand not just what Indians want to see, but how they want to engage with it. The challenge for social media platforms lies in striking the delicate balance between global scalability and local relevance, where a one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn't work in a country where cricket fandom can be as intense as philosophical debates about startups.

It's precisely this cultural landscape that Reddit sees as its goldmine. With 64.1 million monthly unique visitors as of January 2025 and 3.8 million monthly active app users in 2024, Reddit isn't just growing in India but becoming a cultural phenomenon. But what makes this growth particularly interesting is how the platform is positioning itself as the go-to place for authentic, community-driven conversations.

"India is also home to niche subcultures and communities, and that aligns with Reddit's vast community ecosystem, which spans a breadth of topics," explains Durgesh Kaushik, Vice President of International Growth at Reddit. 

This alignment has led the platform to make some strategic moves in the Indian market, including its partnership with Sachin Tendulkar, India's cricket legend, as an endorser.

"Sachin's influence extends far beyond the cricket pitch. He has a universal appeal that transcends demographics," Kaushik notes. "Though many younger fans may not have seen him play live, they unequivocally recognise him as a legendary sports figure who helped unite generations of fans to come together to celebrate their love of the game."

The Tendulkar partnership aims to enrich the user experience and foster more conversations to build connections.

Localising the global platform

Reddit's approach to India goes beyond celebrity partnerships. The platform has been building infrastructure to support local engagement through features that recognise India's linguistic and cultural diversity. It launched Machine Translation capabilities in Hindi and Bengali. 

Kaushik emphasises that the platform’s priority is to ensure a healthy ecosystem of communities and engaged users in India. This approach has led to investments in local growth and community teams focused on making the platform feel "timely and culturally relevant," according to Kaushik.

The platform has also introduced Reddit Answers in India for onboarding new users, helping them discover relevant content and communities more easily. This feature represents its attempt to solve a common problem for new users: finding relevant communities in a platform that hosts over 100,000 active communities globally.

Reddit's community-first strategy has included strategic partnerships and authentic engagement initiatives. The platform has introduced AMAs (Ask Me Anything sessions) with celebrities and business leaders, including Sonu Sood, Sanjeev Sharma, Nick Booker, Sanjeev Kapoor, and others. As per Kaushik, “These sessions provide direct access to influential figures, making Reddit a platform for authentic, interactive engagement rather than passive consumption."

More than half of Reddit’s audience is outside of the U.S., but it represents only 20% of its business today. Kaushik sees it as an opportunity. By deepening and expanding its advertising relationships in important markets outside the US, the platform is reportedly seeing international revenue growth accelerating. 

Along with the user engagement on the platform, Reddit's international advertising revenue has grown over 80% year-over-year, with the company reporting that advertising revenue overall grew more than 60% from the previous year. This growth comes at a time when the platform is deliberately shifting away from traditional advertising models toward what Kaushik calls "community marketing".

Brands of all sizes and industries, from beauty to automotive, advertise on the platform, Kaushik notes. 

Staying human while embracing technology

As Reddit expands its Indian operations, the platform has built its reputation on authentic human conversation, simultaneously embracing AI tools for both user experience and advertiser solutions.

It has launched Reddit Insights and Conversation Summary Add-ons tools, both powered by Reddit Community Intelligence. Reddit Community Intelligence analyses millions of publicly available conversations on the platform using AI-powered processing. Kaushik is careful to emphasise that these tools respect user privacy and adds that the platform believes users "should be able to share as much or as little as they would like about themselves."

While this feature uses AI to analyse publicly available conversations, it aims to use minimal information from users. This enables advertisers to extract insights in a way that respects user privacy. 

For Škoda's "Redditor Edit" campaign, the car manufacturer co-created the 4th generation Škoda Octavia using feedback from passionate redditors in the r/CarTalkUK community. The campaign recently won two Gold Lions and one Silver Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. 

Moreover, it reportedly created a commercial impact for the brand, with the website traffic growing by 44% and taking 255% more orders for Octavias than expected.

When it comes to organic engagement, audio brand Sonos’ employee Keith has become "a beloved presence” in the r/Sonos subreddit. The employee solves user issues while sharing his favourite memes, allowing the brand to build genuine brand trust and loyalty.

According to a recent analysis from The Nielsen Company, retail advertisers achieve $1.97 in return on ad spend (ROAS) using Reddit ads.

Additionally, its new feature for advertisers, Conversation Summary Add-ons, slots positive posts from Reddit users right under their ads. It reportedly integrates positive content from users directly below an advertiser’s creative, putting community conversations. 

Despite the many features powered by its AI tools, Reddit's relationship with AI isn't entirely harmonious. The platform recently sued AI company Anthropic for allegedly scraping user comments without consent to train its Claude chatbot. Reddit aims to monetise its data through official partnerships with both Google and OpenAI, while aggressively protecting against unauthorised use.

Growing opportunities in India

The company's approach to AI reflects a broader business reality. With more than half of Reddit's audience now outside the US, there is significant pressure to monetise global growth. International ad revenue grew over 80% year-over-year, but lower CPMs in markets like India require volume and efficiency that AI tools can help provide.

For Indian advertisers, this creates interesting opportunities. Kaushik explains, “Unlike other platforms, we are organised by interests, not social connections, making us uniquely positioned for brands looking to build trust and loyalty.”

He continues that over half of all online purchasing conversations happen on the platform, with 88% of social media users turning to the platform to help them research and validate their purchase decisions. 

Yet Reddit is trying to guide Indian brands away from traditional, aggressive, discount-driven advertising approaches. Kaushik uses a dinner party metaphor: "You wouldn't walk in and start shouting about yourself – you take a moment to read the room, find your people, and start conversations that meet the moment. We recommend a similar approach on the platform."

Looking ahead, Reddit's focus on India extends beyond cricket and Bollywood into areas that reflect the country's evolving digital culture. The platform is exploring opportunities in entertainment and education, particularly around communities dedicated to university students and entrance exam support. Communities like r/JEE, r/UPSC, r/IITBombay, r/BITSPilani, and r/CATPreparation represent the kind of high-engagement, niche communities that Reddit fosters.

Kaushik is particularly focused on India's Gen Z, describing efforts to foster communities where they connect with like-minded peers over shared passions.

“These interests range from fashion and automobiles to technology, startups, AI, fitness, music, digital influencers, food and science,” he comments. 

Communities like r/IndianFashionAddicts, r/CarsIndia, r/StartupIndia, and  r/IndianFood are some of the examples where Gen Z is found. The platform's success in India ultimately depends on maintaining community and knowledge while making them feel locally and culturally relevant to users in India. As he puts it, "We are only beginning to scratch the surface and believe the region presents a massive opportunity for Reddit."

In a digital landscape increasingly dominated by algorithmic feeds and AI-generated content, Reddit's bet on authentic human community feels both nostalgic and forward-thinking. Whether the platform can scale this approach while satisfying both user expectations for authenticity and advertiser growth will likely determine not just Reddit's success in India, but its global future as well.

 

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