Reddit (/ˈrɛdɪt/) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and forum social network. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images, and videos, which are then voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into user-created boards called "communities" or "subreddits". Submissions with more upvotes appear towards the top of their subreddit and, if they receive enough upvotes, ultimately on the site's front page. Reddit administrators moderate the communities. Moderation is also conducted by community-specific moderators, who are not Reddit employees.[5] It is operated by Reddit, Inc., based in San Francisco.[6][7]
Type of business
June 23, 2005[2]
5
Worldwide, except for Indonesia (without DNS) and China
- Advance Publications (30%)[3]
- Tencent (11%)[3]
- Sam Altman (9%)[3]
- Steve Huffman (CEO)
- Jen Wong (COO)
- Drew Vollero (CFO)
- Christopher Slowe (CTO)
US$804 million (2023)[3]
US$−140 million (2023)[3]
US$−90.8 million (2023)[3]
US$1.596 billion (2023)[3]
US$−413 million (2023)[3]
2,013 (December 2023)[3]
Reddit Inc.
- reddit
.com - redditinc
.com (corporate)
Banner ads and promoted links
Yes
Optional[notes 2]
Active
As of October 2023, Reddit is the 18th most-visited website in the world. According to data provided by Similarweb, 48.98% of the website traffic comes from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom at 7.06% and Canada at 6.9%.[6]
Reddit was founded by University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, as well as Aaron Swartz, in 2005. Condé Nast Publications acquired the site in October 2006. In 2011, Reddit became an independent subsidiary of Condé Nast's parent company, Advance Publications.[8] In October 2014, Reddit raised $50 million in a funding round led by Sam Altman and including investors Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Ron Conway, Snoop Dogg, and Jared Leto.[9] Their investment valued the company at $500 million at the time.[10][11] In July 2017, Reddit raised $200 million for a $1.8 billion valuation, with Advance Publications remaining the majority stakeholder.[12] In February 2019, a $300 million funding round led by Tencent brought the company's valuation to $3 billion.[13] In August 2021, a $700 million funding round led by Fidelity Investments raised that valuation to over $10 billion.[14] The company then reportedly filed for an IPO in December 2021 with a valuation of $15 billion.[15][16] Reddit debuted on the stock market on the morning of March 21, 2024 with the ticker symbol RDDT.[17]
Reddit has received praise for many of its features, such as the ability to create several subreddits for niche communities,[18][19] being a platform for raising publicity for numerous causes,[20] and has grown to be one of the most visited websites on the Internet.[21] It has also received criticism for spreading misinformation.[22]
Corporate affairs
Reddit is a public company based in San Francisco.[166][105] It has an office in the Mid-Market neighborhood.[167] Reddit doubled its headcount in 2017;[168] as of 2018, it employed approximately 350 people.[105] In 2017, the company was valued at $1.8 billion during a $200 million round of new venture funding.[12][46] The company was previously owned by Condé Nast, but was spun off as an independent company.[46] As of April 2018, Advance Publications, Condé Nast's parent company, retained a majority stake in Reddit.[105]
Reddit's key management personnel includes co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman,[23] Chief Technology Officer Chris Slowe, who was the company's original lead engineer,[65] and Chief Operating Officer Jen Wong, a former president of digital and chief operating officer at Time Inc.[109]
Reddit does not disclose its revenue figures.[12][109] The company generates revenue in part through advertising and premium memberships that remove ads from the site.[109]
As part of its company culture, Reddit operates on a no-negotiation policy for employee salaries.[169] The company offers new mothers, fathers, and adoptive parents up to 16 weeks of parental leave.[170]
As of August 2021, Reddit is valued at more than $10 billion following a $410 million funding round.[171] The company was looking to hire investment bankers and lawyers to assist in making an initial public offering. However, CEO Steve Huffman said the company has not decided on the timing for when to go public.[172] In December 2021, Reddit announced they had filed a draft registration statement with the SEC regarding their prospective IPO.[173][174] Reddit finally made its debut on the stock market on March 21, 2024.[17]
Advertising
In February 2013, Betabeat published a post that recognized the influx of multinational corporations like Costco, Taco Bell, Subaru, and McDonald's posting branded content on Reddit that was made to appear as if it was original content from legitimate Reddit users.[175] PAN Communications wrote that marketers want to "infiltrate the reddit community on behalf of their brand," but emphasized that "self-promotion is frowned upon" and Reddit's former director of communications noted that the site is "100 percent organic."[176][177][178][179] She recommended that advertisers design promotions that "spark conversations and feedback."[180] She recommended that businesses use AMAs to get attention for public figures but cautioned "It is important to approach AMAs carefully and be aware that this may not be a fit for every project or client."[181] Nissan ran a successful branded content promotion offering users free gifts to publicize a new car,[182][183] though the company was later ridiculed for suspected astroturfing when the CEO only answered puff piece questions on the site.[184][185] Taylor described these situations as "high risk" noting: "We try hard to educate people that they have to treat questions that may seem irreverent or out of left field the same as they would questions about the specific project they are promoting."[186]
Reddit's users tend to be more privacy-conscious than on other websites, often using tools like ad-blocking software and proxies,[187] and they dislike "feeling manipulated by brands" but respond well to "content that begs for intelligent viewers and participants."[188] Lauren Orsini writes in ReadWrite that "Reddit's huge community is the perfect hype machine for promoting a new movie, a product release, or a lagging political campaign" but there is a "very specific set of etiquette. Redditors don't want to advertise for you, they want to talk to you."[189] Journalists have used the site as a basis for stories, though they are advised by the site's policies to respect that "reddit's communities belong to their members" and to seek proper attribution for people's contributions.[190]
Reddit announced that they would begin using VigLink to redirect affiliate links in June 2016.[191][192]
Since 2017, Reddit has partnered with companies to host sponsored AMAs and other interactive events,[193][194] increased advertising offerings,[195] and introduced efforts to work with content publishers.[196]
In 2018, Reddit hired Jen Wong as COO, responsible for the company's business strategy and growth, and introduced native mobile ads.[109] Reddit opened a Chicago office to be closer to major companies and advertising agencies located in and around Chicago.[105] In 2019, Reddit hired former Twitter ad director Shariq Rizvi as its vice president of ad products and engineering.[197]
Science
Aggregate Reddit user data has been used for scientific research.[394] For example, a 2014 study showed how subreddits can support role-based group recommendations or provide evaluation towards group stability and growth.[395] Another study evoked a connection between cognitive and attention dynamics and the usage of online social peer production platforms, including the effects of deterioration of user performance.[396] There is also work that has studied the influence of Reddit posts on the popularity of Wikipedia content.[397] A participant-observation study of April Fools' Day 2017 social experiment on r/place identified top-down and bottom-up coordination mechanisms, rules and emergence, and analyzed their relative impact on the collaboratively created artwork, revealing cooperation and conflict, using qualitative and quantitative methods.[398]
Data from Reddit can also be used to assess academic publications.[399]
