Reddit kind of anticipates this critique in its investor docs, and argues that it didn’t really start operating as a serious business until 2018 when it finally started “meaningful monetization efforts” — that is, trying to make money for real.
But that’s still six years ago. What has Reddit been doing since then?
One big, obvious answer: It has been hiring a lot of engineers and spending a lot of money on their salaries…
…What am I missing? I asked Reddit comms for comment but they declined, citing the company’s quiet period before the IPO.
I think a quirk of reddit is that conventional finance doesn’t account for its value. Reddit in and of itself just operates a barebones site as the article says. While the site itself is ostensibly worthless. It has had incredible amount of value to those using it for commercial and political purpose. Nation state actors too even (cougheglincough). These days what organization isn’t using or trying to use reddit. Such things don’t appear in financial statements. I think they’ve been propped up with funding for so long because its a nexus of zeitgeist. There are enough organizations who it is useful to such that it’s better to keep reddit alive rather than risk having to establish their dark presence on new competitor platforms. I suspect spez knows he has everyone by the balls too.