Reddit to go Public

Reddit, also known as ‘the front page of the Internet’, has announced plans to go public.

• Reddit started in 2005 and quickly became known as ‘the front page of the Internet’. It is one of the few sites from that era, which still maintains the aesthetic of mid-2000s.
• The site is a message board, news aggregation site, forum, discussion site, image sharing site, online groups everything rolled into one. It’s not the most intuitive sites out there.
• Unlike most of its competitors from the early noughts, Reddit has been getting stronger over the years. It boasts hundred of thousands of communities, over 50 million daily active users.
• On the one side it has been a treasure trove of information and has given rise to many web culture staples, on the other hand, its anarchic nature has led to pricky problems.
• Hate against women, inciting people to take violent actions, misinformation have thrived on the moderators-run platform. It’s not easy to control this as then it’s deemed anti-free-speech.
• Reddit is fundamentally different from more contemporary companies like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, so regulating it is like walking into a minefield as past CEOs have expressed.
• While no numbers have been put forth regarding the upcoming IPO, Reddit is speculated to be valued at $10 billion.
• We take a look at some key moments in Reddit history, it’s position in the social media zeitgeist as well as how its co-founder and CEO plans to steer a 2005 site in 2021.