People Inc. Reports 70% Drop in Google Search Referral Traffic and Pivots Toward Non-Session Revenue
TLDR
People Inc. says its Google search referral traffic is down 70% over the past two years and is shifting toward revenue beyond site visits.
Optimixed Overview
Optimixed's original report on this story.
People Inc. chairman Barry Diller told investors on the company's Q3 earnings call that it has seen a "critical loss of sessions," with referral traffic from Google search down 70%. As first reported by AdExchanger, the company is now betting on revenue that doesn't depend on site visits.
How we got here: earlier coverage
- Oct 29Reddit's ad revenue climbs 54% to $847M while daily users stall at 130.3M
Reddit's ad revenue rose 54% to $847 million while its daily audience stalled at 130.3 million, and search referrals to the platform fell by over 1 million a week in October.
- Oct 29Google's Q3 Stock Plunge Raises Questions About Search Ad Revenue and AI Spending
Google's Q3 stock plunge has put its AI spending and Search ad revenue under scrutiny, and the earnings offer signals for PPC advertisers.
- Oct 19Search traffic drops to 12% of North American publisher pageviews in latest Chartbeat data
Search referral traffic to North American publishers fell sharply to 12% of pageviews in Q3 2025, down from 21% the prior quarter, according to Chartbeat data.
- Sep 24Google Search and Discover traffic to publishers dropped 40% year-over-year, while direct and internal traffic grew
Publisher traffic from Google Search and Discover fell 40% year-over-year, according to new reporting.