Reddit: soon to be a zombie
The way things are going, Reddit’s IPO looks set to be a disaster; not just for the share price, but for the prospects of a project that became a symbol of internet freedom, a forum to discuss any topic, moderated by its own community. Reddit was a benchmark thanks to moderation systems that brought the best contributions to the surface, and that, despite many highly problematic and toxic communities, ended up becoming a creator of content that was frequently included in Google searches.
The redditors themselves, despite the most loyal having been offered shares in return for their contribution to the success of the page, seem opposed to the IPO, convinced that it spells the beginning of the end. If anything can derail this launch, it’s precisely the redditors, prompting many analysts to fear the worst. Creating a page and making it grow thanks to the unpaid work of many of its participants, to later take it public and then hope it will reach a valuation of €6.5 billion is a risky proposition, to say the least.
But beyond the feelings of the Reddit community, the plan to monetize everything monetizable to justify its valuation could also be tricky: in addition to licensing the site’s content to Google, content that was essentially not theirs, at least, not in spirit, management now intends to create tools to “help companies improve their presence on the page,” a Reddit…
