In a second attempt to be one of the first inductees of the startup incubator Y Combinator, University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian built Reddit, which they labelled “the front page of the internet”.
The site functionality remains much the same as it was back in 2005. Users write posts, upload photos, videos and link to other parts of the internet. To organise the content, Redditors upload to specific subreddits. If the post receives a lot of attention, it may be featured on /r/all, the front page.
A year after launch, Reddit sold to Conde Nast Publications for $20 million. Conde Nast owners Advance Publications moved Reddit to its own subsidiary a few years later. It remains the largest shareholder, although a recent investment by Tencent may have diluted its stake.
Huffman and Ohanian, alongside other early Reddit employees Aaron Swartz and Christopher Slowe, left Reddit in the next few years. While many in the Reddit community liked the rather web 2.0 look, it began to lag behind the other social networks rapidly gaining traction, such as Facebook and Twitter.
It wouldn’t be until 2015, after a succession of CEOs brought in by Advance Publications, that the original duo of Huffman and Ohanian would take back the reigns. At this point, Reddit had built a tight-knit community, but had several fundamental issues which scared advertisers and new users.
While it took a few years, Huffman (led by ex-CEO Ellen Pao’s anti-harassment policy) began to ban a lot of the less desirable subreddits and dish out harsher punishments to those harassing, doxing and insulting other people.
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Get nowReddit still makes a slither of revenue from advertising in comparison to Facebook and Twitter, however it has started to see real progress, growing its ad business by 112 percent in the last two years.
Huffman has preceded over a greater push to mobile. For the first 10 years of Reddit’s existence, it allowed third-party developers to build apps for the website, but in the past five years it has dedicated far more time to its first-party offering.
Reddit also updated its website and app, updating it to fit with the design trends of the past few years. This sparked pushback by Redditors, so web users are able to reset the design to the older version.
The updates to design and harassment seem to have been critical to Reddit’s two recent funding rounds, the most recent valued the company at $6 billion. In 2020, Reddit was the epicentre of the /r/WallStreetbets short squeeze on hedge fund managers, using the Robinhood app. This drew in millions of new users to the platform.
We have collected data and statistics on Reddit. Read on below to find out more.
Reddit key statistics
- Reddit generated $350 million in 2021, primarily from its advertising business
- Reddit has 52 million daily active users and approximately 430 million users who use it once a month
- In 2020, Reddit received over 30 billion views every month
- Reddit was valued at $10 billion in August 2021, almost doubling its previous valuation of $6 billion in February 2021
Reddit overview
| Title | Title 2 |
|---|---|
| Launch date | 23 June 2005 |
| HQ | San Francisco, California |
| People | Steve Huffman (co-founder, CEO), Jen Wong (COO), Christopher Slowe (CTO), Alexis Ohanian (co-founder) |
| Business type | Private |
| Owner | Advance Publications (majority shareholder) |
| Industry | Internet, social |
Reddit revenue
Reddit more than doubled its revenue in 2021, with the vast majority coming from advertising. It also launched a Reddit alt-coin, which can be gifted to other Reddit users.
Reddit annual revenue 2014 to 2021 ($mm)
| Year | Revenue ($mm) |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 8 |
| 2015 | 15 |
| 2016 | 25 |
| 2017 | 50 |
| 2018 | 80 |
| 2019 | 120 |
| 2020 | 170 |
| 2021 | 350 |
Sources: AdAge, eMarketer, TechCrunch, The Information
Reddit users
Reddit had 430 million monthly active users in 2020. That growth may have stagnated in 2021 and 2022, with Reddit reportedly citing a similar figure in its ad package in 2021.
Reddit annual monthly active users 2013 to 2020 (mm)
| Year | MAUs (mm) |
|---|---|
| 2013 | 70 |
| 2014 | 85 |
| 2015 | 120 |
| 2016 | 170 |
| 2017 | 250 |
| 2018 | 330 |
| 2019 | 370 |
| 2020 | 430 |
Sources: Business Insider, Company data
Reddit daily users
Reddit started breaking out its users into MAUs and DAUs in 2020, reporting that 52 million users logged on daily to the app.
Reddit annual daily active users 2013 to 2020 (mm)
| Year | DAUs (mm) |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 36 |
| 2020 | 52 |
Source: Company data
Reddit valuation
Reddit received two valuation increases in 2021, rising from $3 billion in 2019 to $6 billion in February 2021 and then $10 billion in August 2021.
Reddit valuation 2014 to 2021 ($bn)
| Date | Valuation ($bn) |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 0.5 |
| 2017 | 1.8 |
| 2019 | 3 |
| Feb 2021 | 6 |
| August 2021 | 10 |
Sources: CNBC, VentureBeat, WSJ
Reddit funding
Reddit has received over $1 billion in total funding since it received its first series in 2012. The majority of its funding came in the past two years.
Reddit cumulative funding 2012 to 2021 ($mm)
| Year | Funding ($mm) |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 1 |
| 2014 | 50 |
| 2017 | 250 |
| 2019 | 550 |
| 2020 | 919 |
| 2021 | 1328 |
Source: Crunchbase
Reddit monthly views
Reddit received 30 billion average monthly views in 2020, a 42% increase on the previous year.
Reddit average monthly views 2018 to 2020 (bn)
| Year | Monthly views (bn) |
|---|---|
| 2018 | 14 |
| 2019 | 21 |
| 2020 | 30 |
Source: Company data
Reddit FAQ
How many minutes does the average Reddit user spend on the site?
Users spend on average 10 minutes 23 seconds on Reddit
How many posts are uploaded a year?
303.4 million posts were uploaded in 2020
How many comments were posted in a year?
In 2020, Reddit users posted over two billion comments and 49.2 upvotes
How many videos are uploaded to Reddit?
1.4 billion videos are uploaded to Reddit every month
How much of Reddit’s traffic is from the US?
According to SimilarWeb, over half of Reddit’s traffic is from the US
What is Reddit’s largest age demographic?
A quarter of Reddit users are between the ages 20-29
How many subreddits are available on Reddit?
There are over 2.2 million subreddits, 130,000 of which are considered active communities
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