Reddit is an online social platform created in 2005 that allows users to create content and discuss topics of interest. Today Reddit is made up of a huge number of forums. Users called Redditors can share opinions, news and discussions with each other. Posts are open to the entire Reddit community to vote either by pressing the up button or against. There are over 130 thousand different sub-forums and communities called subreddits. Posts on the site are categorized by topics such as random, gadgets, sports, games, pictures, videos, music, funny, movies, books, history, food, philosophy, television, jokes, art, and more.
Recently, Reddit has become famous for the WallStreetBets subreddit, in which retail investors collectively discuss highly speculative investments in stocks for the purpose of short-term appreciation or pumping. The most famous stories are the soaring capitalization of GameStop, AMC, Kodak, Bed Bath & Beyond, Nokia and Virgin Galactic. Reddit is currently the 19th most visited website on the internet, with the number of registered users growing steadily over the past few years. In October 2020, Reddit had 52 million daily users, up 44% from a year ago. According to Statista, the total number of active users as of July this year was 430 million.
Reddit makes most of its money from advertising. In the second quarter of this year, advertising revenue was $ 100 million, which is almost three times more than in the same period last year. Earlier this year, Reddit said it plans to double its headcount by the end of 2021 to approximately 1,400 employees. More recently, Reddit recruited Drew Vollero as CFO, who previously held a leadership position at parent company Snapchat, overseeing their move to the public market. SNAP raised $ 3.4 billion during its 2017 IPO. The company then hired former Instagram executive Timo Peltz, Laura Nestler from Duolingo, and Allison Miller from Bank of America.
In mid-August, Reddit announced that the company had raised $ 410 million in an F round of investment led by Fidelity Investments. During this round, Reddit plans to raise an additional $ 290 million from existing investors and possibly new investors. In round F, the company was valued at $ 10 billion, compared with $ 6 billion in the previous investment round held in February last year for $ 410 million. Reddit plans to use the proceeds to fund geographic expansion and site development. In just 7 investment rounds, Reddit raised $ 1.3 billion. Among the company’s largest investors are Sequoia Capital, Tencent Holdings and Andreessen Horowitz.
It’s worth noting that some of Reddit’s competitors are currently trading at their highs. Over the past 12 months, Facebook has grown by more than 39%, Twitter shares have gained 63%, and Snap has more than tripled its capitalization (+ 226%). By comparison, the Nasdaq 100 rose 41% over the same period. Amid an ultra-soft monetary policy, a favorable environment is emerging for companies from the technology sector. From September to the end of the calendar year, many companies are looking to go public to raise capital as they move into the new year. It is expected that the market valuation of Reddit at the time of listing on the exchange could be more than $ 15 billion.