Reddit Files For IPO Despite Being Unprofitable - Forex News by FX Leaders

Social media site, Reddit has filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “RDDT”.

The decision comes after three years of discussion among the top executives to file for IPO in order to grow its business through advertising and e-commerce offerings.

“Our work to make Reddit faster, easier to use, easier to moderate and govern, and simpler to navigate and find relevant communities is driving growth today and will continue to be our focus into the future,” Co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman said in a letter.

The online discussion forum had reserved some shares for its top users based on their contributions. It reportedly has 267.5 million active weekly users, more than 100,000 active communities, and 1 billion total posts.

“Our users have a deep sense of ownership over the communities they create on Reddit. We want this sense of ownership to be reflected in real ownership — for our users to be our owners,” the CEO commented. “Becoming a public company makes this possible.”

The networking site founded in 2005 by Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman, was later sold to Conde Nast in 2006. Currently, its largest shareholders are Advance Publications, Chinese tech company Tencent, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Reddit, the first major tech company to file for an IPO in 2024, made $804 million in revenue last year. However, it suffered a loss of $90.8 million in 2023, according to the SEC filing.

Currently, the networking site is looking to source its income from AI, as it had signed a data licensing agreement with Google for $60 million a year for access to its content.

“Reddit’s vast and unmatched archive of real, timely, and relevant human conversation on literally any topic is an invaluable dataset for a variety of purposes, including search, AI training, and research,” Huffman explained. “We expect our data advantage and intellectual property to continue to be a key element in the training of future LLMs.”

Earlier, Reddit had filed for IPO in 2021, but later withdrew it due to an unstable market.