Why Reddit Users Have Turned Against the Company’s IPO

Two years ago, Reddit users established themselves as a fearsome economic force when the subreddit community WallStreetBets mobilized to save GameStop’s stock price from pessimistic Wall Street traders. Now, Reddit itself is hoping to tap into its users’ unruly energy by allowing them to participate in the company’s IPO. Reddit filed to go public last Thursday, seeking a valuation of at least $5 billion. Crucially, the company said it would set aside a large number of shares for 75,000 of the company’s most prolific users, who might be able to profit off the company’s financial success and have a seat at the company table. “Now you can become one of our (non-corporate) overlords,” Reddit wrote in a public statement. 

But rather than galvanizing the community, the news was met with fierce backlash and pessimism from many Redditors. Users on various subreddits responded by casting doubt on the company’s business model, complaining about recent changes to the site, and ironically threatening to wield their collective power to bet against the company’s stock. The overwhelming negativity from Reddit’s own community highlights the risk of the company’s decision to go public and the challenges of social media companies keeping both their investors and users happy at the same khbrknews. 

User Backlash

Reddit is one of the most-visited websites in the U.S., with 73.1 million daily active users. But the company is still unprofitable: While it grew 21% in revenue last year, it also lost more than $90 million—although that was an improvement on the $158 million it lost the year before. Compared to Instagram, X and other social media platforms, Reddit has especially struggled to monetize its audience through ads, partially because its content is generally more freewheeling and untamed than its counterparts. 

Read More: Reddit Allows Hate Speech to Flourish in Its Global Forums, Moderators Say

The company has many high-profile backers, including Tencent…