Reddit aims for $6.4bn valuation in shares sale

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 07:23:59 GMT
BBC News - Technology

The social media website is one of the most popular in the world but struggles to make a profit

Reddit, one of the most popular websites in the world, is hoping for a valuation of up to $6.4bn when its shares go public next week.

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that Reddit is hoping to sell 22 million shares for between $31 and $34 each.

Some shares will be specially reserved for some Reddit users and moderators.

The company is planning an initial public offering which would make some of its shares publicly available to buy for the first time.

"Our users have a deep sense of ownership over the communities they create on Reddit," wrote co-founder Steve Huffman in a letter to prospective investors released a few weeks ago.

"We want this sense of ownership to be reflected in real ownership - for our users to be our owners. Becoming a public company makes this possible."

The company makes most of its money through advertising on the platform, although it recently struck a deal with Google which allows the tech giant to access Reddit data to train its artificial intelligence models.

Reddit has recorded losses every year since its start, including more than $90m last year.

Currently, the biggest shareholders include media company Advance Magazine Publishers, Chinese tech firm Tencent, US investment firm Fidelity, and Sam Altman, the chief executive of ChatGPT makers OpenAI. Reddit, founded in 2005, has a different feel compared with other social media companies such as Facebook or TikTok.

The power of Reddit communities has been seen through examples such as the Gamestop saga in 2021, where users mobilised to drive up the share price of the US video game retailer.