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Reddit, one of the world’s most popular websites, hopes to be valued at up to $6.4bn (£5bn) when it goes public next week.
The social media company, which has never made a profit, plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
a Filing in the US Reddit and its investors revealed that they hope to sell 22 million shares for between $31 and $34 per share.
However, many users are concerned that the move will fundamentally change the website.
Some shares are reserved specifically for some Reddit users and moderators.
The company is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in which some of its shares will be made available to the public for purchase for the first time.
“Our users feel a deep sense of ownership in the community they’ve created on Reddit,” co-founder Steve Huffman said in a letter to prospective investors published a few weeks ago. I have it,” he wrote.
“We want this sense of ownership, where our users own us, to be reflected in actual ownership. Becoming a public company allows us to do this.”
Founded about 20 years ago, Reddit is an online forum where users can post questions and comment on topics of interest.
The company makes most of its revenue from advertising on its platform, but recently signed a contract with Google This will allow the tech giant to access Reddit data to train artificial intelligence (AI) models.
Reddit has recorded losses every year since its inception, with losses of more than $90 million last year.
This valuation is much lower than the $10 billion it was valued at in a 2021 private funding round.
Currently, its largest shareholders include media company Advance Magazine Publishers, Chinese tech company Tencent, US investment firm Fidelity, and Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
A website built around users
Founded in 2005, Reddit has a different vibe than other social media companies like Facebook and TikTok.
Subreddits are monitored by moderators, but users are often free to write whatever they like.
The power of the Reddit community is evident in examples such as the 2021 GameStop scandal, where users rallied to drive up the US video game retailer’s stock price.
Initially worth $20, the stock rose to a high of $350 after Redditors adjusted it.
“Our most important customers [users] To our shareholders, our products are always [suffers]” said one person.
“It’s not, ‘How can we improve this product?’ It’s, ‘What can we do this quarter to generate additional revenue points?'”
