Founded in 2005, reddit world news site filed for its initial public offering (IPO) on Feb 22, 2024. The company expects to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under RDDT.
Reddit is a dedicated platform, and unlike other platforms managed by editors and writers, it is a place cultivated by real people. The site caters to the community, rewarding real advice from relationship guidance to getting honest product recommendations and reviews.
Reddit also allows users either to reveal their identity or stay anonymous. The platform tries to keep context respectful and safer to let its users be honest about difficult situations. This allows disheartened people to share their vulnerability and get advice.
Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman started this site anonymously to establish commentary on social, cultural, and political norms. The site received a positive response, with its users growing to 76 million people visiting it daily across 100,000 communities.
Reddit is anticipating a considerable stock market debut for its IPO. The company expects to be the most prominent social media IPO after Pinterest went public in 2019. Reddit has yet to decide on the price range to be proposed or the number of shares to be offered.
Financial Performance of Reddit
Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, is Reddit’s third-largest stakeholder, with an 8.7% stake. The largest shareholder of Reddit is Advance Publications, which also owns Conde’Nast. The second largest shareholder is Chinese tech company Tencent, and the third is Sam Altman, the creator of OpenAI. Altman’s stake is even double that of Huffman, the CEO of Reddit.
Reddit is the world’s most reddit popular social media site, driving millions of users and volunteering moderators who run their community with a set of rules. According to the letter accompanying the regulatory filing, the company’s CEO, Huffman, hopes that going public will benefit Reddit and its investors.
IPO Revealing Reddit’s Revenue
Reddit has 267.5 million active users and more than 100,000 active communities. The platform comprises around one billion posts. Yet the company faces a $158.6m loss in 2022 and $90.8m in 2023, growing its revenue by 21%.
According to IPO, the US average revenue per user was $3.42 during the last quarter of 2023, with a decreasing trend of 2% year over year. The company’s largest shareholder, Advanced Magazine Publisher, has 30.1%, while Chinese multinational Tencent has 11% shares.
Since Reddit planned an IPO two decades after its launch, the outcome will significantly influence it. This is because Reddit needs to have the commercial success of its social media counterparts, including Facebook and X.
Why Reddit is Reserving Shares for Top Users
Companies tend to offer their stocks primarily to institutional investors. This process takes place during the stock market premiere. That’s why Reddit’s unusual move is to let top users and moderators participate in the purchase.
The public can now purchase shares in IPO, and the company will choose eligible participants based on their contribution to Reddit. It will also use brokerage apps like Robinhood to determine the participants. The users are determined by a term called karma. Reddit uses it to determine a user’s reputation on this site.
This unusual plan allows its most active users to buy shares in IPO. Reddit will use a tiered system to reward its most frequent users who meaningfully contribute to its community programs. Reddit will set a minimum karma score for the eligibility criteria.
Growth Prospect of Reddit
Old Reddit launched simultaneously with Meta, yet its user base is smaller than its contemporaries. While other companies monetize their platforms successfully, Reddit struggles to monetize its site. There are also particular concerns about its content moderation, and it is facing stiff competition for advertising money from TikTok and Facebook. All these aspects add to Reddit’s challenges in this market.
Conclusion
Reddit’s major stock market debut is its unique approach toward its top users and moderators. This platform is significantly committed to community engagements and is unlocking a new chapter in its evolution. Reddit knows how to shape online interactions most effectively, and this step will enhance its users’ trust in them.