22 votes

Can Reddit survive its own IPO?

Posted by llehsadam
Tags: social media, reddit.blackout, business, ipo, wall street, author.paresh dave, author.robert peck, source.wired, long read, paywall
https://www.wired.com/story/inside-reddit-protest-ipo/

Link information

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Title
Can Reddit-the Internet's Greatest Authenticity Machine-Survive Its Own IPO?
Authors
Paresh Dave Robert Peck, Reece Rogers, Ali Winston, Joel Khalili, Aarian Marshall, ron Tau, Lauren Goode, Hemal Jhaveri
Published
Mar 14 2024
Word count
7816 words

13 comments

  1. [4]
    stu2b50
    Link
    I'm not really sure what the IPO has to do with anything, and the article didn't really make that clear either. As a private company, Reddit is mostly owned by media conglomerate Conde-Naste....

    I'm not really sure what the IPO has to do with anything, and the article didn't really make that clear either. As a private company, Reddit is mostly owned by media conglomerate Conde-Naste. Which, besides being a public company initofitself, is not exactly the spitting image of a benevolent corporate master that doesn't mind if you don't make any money forever?

    19 votes
    1. [3]
      creesch
      Link Parent
      Disclaimer, I didn't read the article as I realized I couldn't be bothered as I left reddit already. But I did click on the post and saw your comment. Reddit has not been owned by Condé Nast since...

      Disclaimer, I didn't read the article as I realized I couldn't be bothered as I left reddit already. But I did click on the post and saw your comment.

      Reddit has not been owned by Condé Nast since 2011 when it was made an independent subsidiary of Advance Publications. The latter being the parent company of Condé Nast. I think Advance Publications currently owns about 20-40% or something.

      Afaik, what this means is that reddit has had to attract investors from that point on to keep the lights on for the most part.

      20 votes
      1. [2]
        stu2b50
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Yeah, that's technically true. I was using Conde Naste as a shorthand (in the same way someone may say Google instead of Alphabet), but technically Reddit was moved to be under Conde Naste's...

        Yeah, that's technically true. I was using Conde Naste as a shorthand (in the same way someone may say Google instead of Alphabet), but technically Reddit was moved to be under Conde Naste's parent company.

        Either way, I don't see "Advance Publication", Tencent, and Sam HarrisAltman, who together own like 70% of the company, as a particularly benevolent, cottage-industry set of owners. I don't see how the IPO changes anything - is being owned by Fidelity instead of "Advance Publications" going to make or break the site?

        edit: wrong sam

        14 votes
        1. llehsadam
          Link Parent
          I think you meant Sam Altman? I just checked how much he owns... it may be quite a big chunk!

          Either way, I don't see "Advance Publication", Tencent, and Sam Harris

          I think you meant Sam Altman? I just checked how much he owns... it may be quite a big chunk!

          According to the cap table in Reddit's filing, "Entities Affiliated with Sam Altman" own an 8.7% stake in the company made up of 789,456 Class A shares and 11,369,103 Class B Shares. But just because the shares are affiliated with Altman doesn't mean they are his. source

          6 votes
  2. llehsadam
    Link
    I think the article is a pretty fair summary of some of the events it describes and the tone matches the general feeling I have when remembering the many events. Stelon Husk… lol that is funny,...

    I think the article is a pretty fair summary of some of the events it describes and the tone matches the general feeling I have when remembering the many events.

    Stelon Husk… lol that is funny, but Steve did change around that time, I think calling his moves since then Muskian is fitting.

    5 votes
  3. [7]
    X08
    Link
    By extension the IPO will shift power and who has a say in things to people who not necessarily have any experience dealing with a huge social media platform. This is where my disgust for...

    By extension the IPO will shift power and who has a say in things to people who not necessarily have any experience dealing with a huge social media platform. This is where my disgust for shareholders most likely stems from. Slowly the goals will drift towards market share and profitability over all else and this will strip Reddit from its initial identity I feel, especially when the demand is being raised for YoY ROI.

    4 votes
    1. [6]
      kingofsnake
      Link Parent
      Mining years worth of posts for AI content is where we're going in the long-term, I'd say. "The Reddit dataset" will be worth plenty and all of the time, effort and thought that users put in over...

      Mining years worth of posts for AI content is where we're going in the long-term, I'd say. "The Reddit dataset" will be worth plenty and all of the time, effort and thought that users put in over the years will be milked for LLR benefits.

      Like, I don't think anybody ever saw this coming. If they had, they would have thought twice about those terms and conditions.

      I'd love to see a public social media service begin to develop now that we have a good sense of what we collectively like and don't like in a social discussion platform. I've always thought that civic institutions like libraries would be well placed to pool resources to build out an online town square.

      Pie in the sky, but whatever.

      7 votes
      1. [3]
        public
        Link Parent
        Given how heavily-scraped Reddit was, I don't see there being much value here beyond "The Reddit dataset after 2023". Those posts are already in LLMs.

        "The Reddit dataset" will be worth plenty and all of the time, effort and thought that users put in over the years will be milked for LLR benefits.

        Given how heavily-scraped Reddit was, I don't see there being much value here beyond "The Reddit dataset after 2023". Those posts are already in LLMs.

        7 votes
        1. CptBluebear
          Link Parent
          I wonder if Deimos' subredditsimulator ended up in an LLM. An LLM learning to speak from a Markov chain is peak comedy.

          I wonder if Deimos' subredditsimulator ended up in an LLM.

          An LLM learning to speak from a Markov chain is peak comedy.

          10 votes
        2. winther
          Link Parent
          Probably but scraped data is messy and full of holes. A proper source including all the hidden metadata Reddit might have in addition to the public data could still be valuable.

          Probably but scraped data is messy and full of holes. A proper source including all the hidden metadata Reddit might have in addition to the public data could still be valuable.

          2 votes
      2. [2]
        X08
        Link Parent
        I feel ya, a Dalaran of sorts :)) literal sky island

        I feel ya, a Dalaran of sorts :)) literal sky island

        1 vote
        1. kingofsnake
          Link Parent
          Not qualified to dish quality Warcraft references, but I will say that "I'm ready, I'm not ready" to try.

          Not qualified to dish quality Warcraft references, but I will say that "I'm ready, I'm not ready" to try.

          1 vote