ChatGPT, Reddit, X: disruption of audiences and the future of SEO traffic

In France, the latest Médiamétrie data reveal very noticeable changes in the ranking of the most visited sites and apps. ChatGPT is making a spectacular breakthrough, while X (formerly Twitter) is seeing its audience melt away. At the same time, Reddit is emerging as a winner thanks to AI, and global trends revealed by Semrush point to a future in which AI could eventually supplant traditional search.

ChatGPT establishes itself in the Médiamétrie Top 50

Long absent from the ranking of the most popular platforms, OpenAI makes a spectacular entry into the Médiamétrie rankings. In May 2025, ChatGPT attracts 18.3 million French internet users each month, compared with 4.2 million daily visitors. A performance that propels it to 34th place in the top 50, just ahead of heavyweights like Vinted (18 million), Marmiton (17.9), Shein (17.8), LinkedIn (16.5) or Pinterest (16 million).

The momentum is spectacular: compared with May 2024, ChatGPT's audience has more than tripled, a sign of massive adoption by the general public. The growth is fueled by the rise in daily AI use to answer queries, look for ideas, or even produce content.

X plunges below its pre-Elon Musk levels

That's the other surprise of recent months: X (formerly Twitter) is experiencing a sharp decline in France. According to Médiamétrie, the platform recorded in May alone 15.5 million French internet users, its worst performance since it was acquired by Elon Musk at the end of 2022.

To understand the scale of the drop, it should be recalled that in 2023 and early 2024, X's audience ranged between 18 and over 20 million monthly users. In May 2024, the social network still had 19.3 million French visitors. In one year, the fall reaches nearly 20%, and daily traffic also collapses, dropping from 5.2 to 4.1 million connections per day.

Since January, Médiamétrie has observed an almost constant decline:

• January: 17 million
• February: 16 million
• March: 16.5 million
• April: 16 million
• May: 15.5 million

The social network thus falls back almost to its early 2022 level (15 million), before Elon Musk's arrival.

Reddit doubles down thanks to AI and Google

Another phenomenon noted by Médiamétrie: the Reddit's breakthrough in France. Even though it is not yet in the top 50, Reddit is now winning over 10.4 million monthly visitors, a doubling of its audience in one year.

How to explain this success? Reddit is fully capitalizing on an incredibly effective strategy: the automated translation into French of its forums thanks to AI, which makes its vast library of discussions more accessible. Another key factor: Reddit is appearing increasingly in the top results on Google, especially for queries related to practical advice or user testimonials.

These signals confirm a profound change: community platforms, long relegated to the margins, are becoming central thanks to their wealth of specialized content and the power of AI to make them visible and understandable to a wider audience.

Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat remain stable

Over the same period, the other major social networks show remarkable stability:

• Instagram remains at the top with 41 million monthly visitors in France.
• Snapchat follows with 25 million monthly visitors.
• TikTok totals 23 million, while LinkedIn holds at 16 million.

These platforms seem to resist the erosion observed on X better. But the rise of AI could well reshuffle the deck in the longer term.

Semrush: AI poised to supplant traditional search

The French data released by Médiamétrie fit into a much larger global movement, documented by a Semrush study conducted on more than 500 topics related to SEO and digital marketing. The finding is clear: AI will disrupt web traffic and sources of visibility.

AI will surpass traditional search by 2028

According to Semrush, traffic from searches made via AIs like ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity will surpass that of traditional search as early as 2028, and perhaps sooner if Google switches entirely to its AI Mode.

At the same time, ChatGPT saw its weekly active users be multiplied by eight between October 2023 and April 2025, surpassing the 800 million mark. This meteoric adoption shows how conversational AI is becoming a search habit for internet users.

An AI visitor 4.4 times more profitable

What changes everything is the quality of visitors generated by AI : according to Semrush, a user arriving on a site via an AI response is worth on average 4.4 times more than a visitor from traditional search. These visitors arrive better informed, often already convinced of the value of a brand or a product, and are therefore much more likely to convert.

AI's preferred information sources: Reddit and Quora

Semrush also reveals the behind-the-scenes of content cited by AIs:

• Quora is the most cited site in Google's AI Overviews.
• Reddit comes in second place, thanks to the richness of its discussions and automatic translation of its content.

These platforms thus become strategic pivots to become visible in AI responses. Note also that nearly 50% of links cited by ChatGPT point to company or service websites, a sign that LLMs consider these sources credible and relevant.

Towards marketing tailored for AI

For businesses, the transition to an AI-dominated world already requires rethink their content :

• Publish precise, easily quotable, and well-structured content.
• Increase multimedia content (text, images, videos) to feed AIs.
• Optimize content for natural language so AIs understand and reuse it correctly.
• Ensure pages are crawlable (avoid 100% JavaScript).
• Create comparative guides to stand out from the competition.

The key is simple: produce useful, accurate, and authoritative content, to become a preferred source for LLMs and capture this new kind of traffic.

The article “ChatGPT, Reddit, X: disruption of audiences and the future of SEO traffic” was published on the site Abondance.