Reddit quietly prepares to go public

Reddit has announced that it has filed to go public, though it’s being rather cagey about it.

The social network announced on Wednesday that it had “submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission”, though it hasn’t made that filing available.

There’s no news yet on the number of shares to be offered, nor the price of those shares. “We are in a quiet period, and for regulatory reasons, we cannot say anything further,” said the company in a brief statement.

Back in August, the company raised $700 million of funding at a valuation of more than $10 billion. It also revealed at the time that it had made $100 million in ad revenue during the second quarter of 2021, which represents almost a 200% increase from the same time last year.

Reddit attracts an estimated 52 million daily active users and some 430 million monthly active users, across more than 100,000 active communities. It’s probably fair to say that the way it has gone about its business in recent years has been viewed more favourably than social media rivals Twitter and Facebook.

Initially conceived as “the front page of the internet”, Reddit has gone on to become the go-to destination for online enthusiasts of all stripes in recent years. It’s essentially a huge collection of forums covering every topic under the sun.

After being founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, with the notable early input of Aaron Swartz, the site was acquired by Condé Nast Publications in 2006 for somewhere in the region of $10 million to $20 million. It became an independent subsidiary in 2011.