Reddit Files To Go Public (cnbc.com) 33
Reddit on Wednesday announced that it has confidentially submitted a draft registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. CNBC reports: The social media company did not make the filing publicly available. The company also did not say how many shares would be offered nor the price range for the proposed offering. Although Reddit was created in 2005, it has taken a unique road toward going public.
Conde Nast Publications acquired Reddit in 2006. The social media services remained a part of the publication company until it was made an independent subsidiary in 2011. Since then, it raised a series of funding rounds from venture capital firms. Most recently, the company announced that it had raised a $700 million round in August 2021 at a valuation of more than $10 billion.
Conde Nast Publications acquired Reddit in 2006. The social media services remained a part of the publication company until it was made an independent subsidiary in 2011. Since then, it raised a series of funding rounds from venture capital firms. Most recently, the company announced that it had raised a $700 million round in August 2021 at a valuation of more than $10 billion.
What's it for? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can much more easily see the case for Rivian raising $10.5B. Building out to mass-manufacture trucks costs serious dough.
But for a website? With unpaid moderators? Why?
Re:What's it for? (Score:4, Insightful)
With unpaid moderators? Why?
Here you have it...they don't have to pay a large portion of the people maintaining the whole thing from their ad revenue. It's like buying a factory with 80% workers working for free.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
> it's just economic exploitation by the overly affluent
Have you ever interacted with a Reddit mod? They exchange their time and effort for a miniscule amount of power over users -- and love it. They are getting everything they deserve.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
"What will it productively do with $700M ?"
Fix the shitty interface ?
Re: (Score:1)
"Fixing" the interface was what made it shitty in the first place, old.reddit.com is still good.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: What's it for? (Score:2)
They'd rather you use a stupid app instead. It's much easier for them to fuck with you that way
Re: (Score:3)
The money will be used to find new and profitable ways to turn the product (the users) into revenue through advertising (the client) for the benfit of the shareholders (the owners). Data mining its users will be top priority I would think. Delivering more high-value targeted ads would be a close second.
Re: (Score:1)
What *do* they do with all that money? (Score:2)
I wonder if I am somewhere missing the scale of companies like reddit, or twitter, or whatever. The parent comment asks
what will it productively do with $700M ?
This refers to the money reddit received in its most recent round of fund raising. And it's a fair question! The last publicly know headcount for reddit was 350. From that, we can follow some crude rules of thumb to come up with annual expenditures of around $50 million. So: what *are* they doing with $700 million?
As for going public: that's just to provide the investors with a way to exit
Re: What *do* they do with all that money? (Score:2)
Reddit basically jumped the shark after they decided they wanted to become a safe space, free of any independent thought. But it's ok, after their long slide to irrelevance, they can get bought out by Verizon and integrated into Oath, just like all of the other shitty information services that were once popular but went stale.
Communication Platform Goes Public (Score:5, Insightful)
I've never liked it when communication platforms go public. The push for profits is one thing, but the push from shareholders to provide unearned profits is an entirely different animal. I don't think anyone is happy with a communication platform that has taken on that toxic aspect to their business.
Re: (Score:2)
The ultimate irony would be if /r/wallstreetbets buys up the Reddit shares and then starts dictating Reddit policies. I'd throw in a few bucks just to help the process along and be hard as a rock the whole time.
Re: Communication Platform Goes Public (Score:2)
That would be entertaining to watch. Only problem is their voting shares would need to be listed by Robinhood. But I doubt Robinhood would even list their standard shares.
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Dr. Koop.com, redux (Score:3)
So one of the worst platforms on the Internet will now be a financial drag on its investors. Because there's no way this thing is going to make enough money to cover what's being invested in it, let alone make a profit beyond that.
Re: (Score:2)
Washington Post doesn't make much profit either, but still somehow Bezos wanted to own it. Funny, that. It's almost as if they get something for owning large media companies besides a direct revenue stream.
Further downhill (Score:5, Interesting)
Because the old reddit that was actually worth something now defaults to a crappy re-design and is doing the same kind of rage-baiting that sites like Twitter do. The incentives to pull in more page-views and ad revs that come from being public is just what they need... to take the final plunge down the drain they've been circling for years; but not until insiders have had a nice exit.
Re: (Score:3)
> but not until insiders have had a nice exit.
Yep, that's how I see this move - a way for the initial investors to cash out by getting amateurs to buy in.
Like Digg and others. (Score:2)
OK, who is going to replace Reddit? Reddit took over Digg for many users. Why am I still on /.? :P
Re: (Score:2)
Probably something blockchain oriented that rewards you for participating, but not Bitclout. Bitclout does too much navel-gazing and the implementation sucks. They're the first mover, and probably won't win. Somebody else will come along and do it better. A culture that doesn't suck, is based on new technology that the kids are in to, and that might make them immediate money can be the new reddit. Next cycle though. I can see something like that emerging from a Crypto Winter.
Hackers already made it (Score:1)
..."public"
Welp (Score:2)
How Long (Score:3)
The push to monetize will destroy it (Score:4, Insightful)
Now the constant push to 'monetize' and 'increase value for shareholders' will crapify it, make it unusable for users (i.e. 'the product') and it will die a terrible death, or it will morph into something even more vile like Facebook.
(is it possible to bring Usenet back? :-) )
Re:The push to monetize will destroy it (Score:5, Informative)
funny... (Score:2)
...how a pack of deep left, capitalism-hating folks can find room in their hearts to embrace such a move as "going public".
I wonder what could motivate them to do such a thing?
Whelp (Score:2)
The new stuff they have added recently is shit and does nothing but slow down the site big time.
Reddit will have to up their game (Score:2)
1. Their community is mostly toxic teens who slam one another
2. A lot of their video content has questionable origins (copyright?) and it's cross-posted to every other sub.
3. Do we all forget the last time just having a website could generate billions? Dot.com.bubble circa 2000's?
Bertrand Russell said it well... “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”