Reddit is one of the biggest social media platforms out there. It’s one of the best places to share creations, have discussions, discover hobbies, meet people with similar interests, and more. It can be a menial distraction for some, and a means to organise market movement for others. But it’s never really gone all in on its potential as a business.
Reddit’s rearing to go
Compared to the likes of Instagram and Facebook, Reddit’s valuation seems a little slight, even after it doubled it from $3 billion to $6 billion between 2019 and 2020. Its current chief operating officer, Jen Wong, wants to change that. “We’re investing a lot. We raised money, and it’s great to be in investment mode,” she said, according to The Guardian.
Reddit’s primary source of income has been advertising, but it’s been looking at more and more ways to monetise itself for its users in a non-obtrusive manner. Uses have always been able to donate to the site and, in return, enjoy an ad-free experience, but has now begun making money off of “awards” that users can buy with real money and gift to users and posts they think deserve them.
They’re totally opt-in, like extra emojis on Twitch or Discord, but are pretty popular. Find any popular post on the site these days and you’ll see a slew of glittering icons adorning the title.
Reddit’s got a few new projects already in the works, like its Clubhouse lookalike, and Wong indicates that we can expect to see many more developments down the line. “We’re growing globally, we’re building new experiences like video, audio, a virtual economy. We’re hiring a lot of people – I mean, we’re gonna be double our size by the end of the year, like 1,400 people.”
Source: The Guardian