Reddit extends machine-learning translation to 35 new countries, including Brazil and Spain

By James Rogers

Reddit has also announced that Mike Romoff is joining the company from Google to serve as chief revenue officer

Reddit Inc. is rolling out machine-learning translation to 35 new countries, the social-media platform announced early Wednesday.

Earlier this year, Reddit (RDDT) introduced immersive machine translation in France, and is now extending the feature to 35 new countries, the company said, in a blog post.

"Redditors in Brazil and Spain can now click the translate icon in the overflow menu in the top right corner of our apps to translate their entire Reddit feed - including posts and comments - into new language options," Reddit said in the post. In the coming weeks, the feature will be rolled out to Germany, Italy, the Philippines and countries throughout Latin America, according to Reddit.

The translation feature means users can translate posts and comments from a community's original language to their Reddit set language.

"For example, someone in Spain who typically uses Reddit in Spanish can follow and contribute to French-language discussions," the company said. This means that users, known as Redditors, can post and comment in their preferred language, which will be auto-translated into the community's native language, Reddit said.

Related: Reddit reports second-quarter revenue beat and narrower-than-expected loss

Reddit shares, which ended Tuesday's session up 3%, are up 0.2% in premarket trades. The stock is up 32.8% since the company's March IPO, outpacing the S&P 500 index's SPX 9.4% gain over the same period.

Speaking during the conference call to discuss Reddit's second-quarter results last month Chief Executive Steve Huffman discussed the company's goal of making the platform "accessible to everyone, regardless of their native language."

In a note released following the results, analyst firm Baird Equity Research said Reddit is well-positioned to reap the benefits of the "treasure trove" of user-generated content on the platform.

Related: Reddit set to harness 'treasure trove' of user-generated content, says analyst

In a separate announcement Wednesday, Reddit said that Mike Romoff is joining the company from Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOGL) (GOOG) Google to serve as chief revenue officer. Romoff, who most recently served as Google's vice president of US Small Business Sales, previously led the tech giant's Global Channel Sales Team. Romoff will be responsible for leading Reddit's Ads Business. The company's ads revenue grew 41% year-over-year in the company's second-quarter results.

Romoff will start on Oct. 7 and report to Reddit COO Jen Wong. Harold Klaje, who led the Ads Business and was the company's first chief revenue officer, is leaving Reddit, the social-media platform said, in a blog post.

"Harold played a key role in scaling Reddit's ads business and laying the foundation for long-term growth," said Wong, in the blog post. "We're grateful for his contributions and wish him the best."

-James Rogers

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09-25-24 0911ET

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