Nineteen years after its founding, the social media network Reddit filed paperwork to go public on Thursday. “I have never been more excited about Reddit’s future than I am right now,” CEO Steve Huffman said in a letter announcing the news. Last year, the company generated $804 million in revenue, up more than 20 percent compared to 2022. Public filings also showed that Huffman and Reddit’s chief operating officer, Jennifer Wong, were paid $286 million in 2023, including stock and option awards (the value accrues over several years, and the current cash value is substantially lower). On average, over 76 million people visited the website each day in December, the company said. Huffman co-founded Reddit with his college roommate Alexis Ohanian, who is now married to Serena Williams; they sold the company for just $10 million in 2006. As of 2021, it was worth $10 billion. Huffman returned as CEO in 2015 and has been working to set the company up for an IPO. As one example of its financial prospects, news broke this week that Google will pay Reddit $60 million per year to use its content to train AI models.
