
Reddit is reportedly considering an IPO - artsandsci
http://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-is-reportedly-considering-an-ipo-2017-11
======
shostack
As an advertiser, I have concerns about their ad platform, and as a user, I'm
terrified to think about what is in store for the future as they gear up for
pleasing investors. History tells us that the soul of Reddit will not remain
intact (if it is in fact even there still).

Also still to be uncovered is what role Reddit (and potentially
mods/employees) played in the election. It is no secret that Reddit was
HEAVILY targeted by Russia (and still is). If I were a potential investor, I'd
want to be much more confident in the accuracy of their user counts and
growth. There's a LOT of fake accounts there.

~~~
xster
Man, Putin must be riding in on his bear and assassinating every single state
employee if 'heavy targeting' gets them this result. Let's look at the top
posts today on r/politics:

    
    
      - Cards Against Humanity buys plot of land on U.S./Mexico border to block border wall
      - Sessions: I Can Remember Only the Parts of 2016 That Exonerate Me
      - RNC cuts off Moore 
      - Secret Finding: 60 Russian Payments "To Finance Election Campaign Of 2016”
      - Fox News' Shepard Smith hits Trump for 'inaccurate' claims on Uranium One deal
      - Site Altered HeadlineJeff Sessions: 'Not enough evidence' for special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton 
      - Troll Smearing Roy Moore Accuser Stole Dead SEAL's Identity
      - Senate GOP to add repeal of Obamacare insurance mandate into tax bill
      - Roy Moore challenged Alabama law that protects rape victims, documents reveal
      - If Republicans believe Roy Moore’s accusers, why not Trump’s?
      - The FBI is examining why Russia transferred nearly $400,000 to its embassies 'to finance' the 'election campaign of 2016'
      - Pence NFL Stunt Cost Indianapolis Police Department $14K
    

Maybe Putin secretly works for David Brock.

Let's look at r/worldnews:

    
    
      - Australia's same-sex marriage postal survey: 61.6% yes, 38.4% no 
      - 'Tobacco at a cancer summit': Trump coal push savaged at climate conference: The US administration’s attempt to portray fossil fuels as vital to reducing poverty and saving US jobs is ridiculed in Bonn 
      - Russia tried to use computer game footage to prove that the U.S. is helping ISIS
      - Trudeau says he raised human rights issues with Duterte after Trump didn’t
      - Sessions changes statement about Trump campaign and Russia. “I do now recall”
      - Russia used 419 fake accounts to tweet about Brexit, data shows
      - Israeli police 'have sufficient evidence to charge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with fraud and accepting gifts worth hundreds of thousands of shekels including demanded free cigars and champagne from associates.
      - Trump Served Shark Fin Soup in Vietnam—A Delicacy Driving Sharks to Extinction: Shark finning is illegal in the U.S and regulated in 21 countries. It involves cutting the fins from live sharks for shark fin soup, and throwing the shark back into the ocean.
      - Secret Finding: 60 Russian Payments "To Finance Election Campaign Of 2016”
    

Man, that Putin is one effective anti-Putin machine.

If it were me, I'd be for more worried as an investor about the virtues of
their founders (e.g. Ohanian sacking Victoria then backstabbing Yishan and
Ellen, Huffman abusing site admin to edit user comments) etc and how it
generally very much misaligns with their original grassroots pre-superPAC pro-
Ralph Nader/Ron Paul/Bernie Sanders (before he turned into a Tom Perez
mouthpiece) crowd that's its userbase.

~~~
ruytlm
r/politics isn't a great example: it's always been left-leaning, and from what
I saw at the time, efforts appeared to be focused on motivating the Republican
base to vote for Trump, and to drive Clinton voters to apathy or complacency.
Neither of these would be achieved by trying to convince Clinton's fervent
supporters on r/politics.

Plus, it's a bit of an equivocation to suggest that today's top posts can be
evidence that an influence campaign a year ago didn't work - the campaign was
a year ago, not today.

~~~
xster
I used to read r/politics multiple times a day before it went south right
around the time of the Democrat's California primary when the DNC nomination
was sealed (on a day when no voters voted and the nomination was determined by
poll calls to anonymous super delegates mind you) and the money started
flowing
[https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?two_year_transaction...](https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?two_year_transaction_period=2016&disbursement_purpose_categories=other&data_type=processed&committee_id=C00578997&min_date=03%2F01%2F2016&max_date=09%2F30%2F2016)
(the FEC site is kinda crap so you'll have to fidget a lot with it). It's
anecdotal but I don't think there are any general tone changes from today to
since ~June last year.

There's a distinct shift in the tone of r/politics. There's a pre-DNC
nomination / pre-CTR, pro-Jill Stein, pro-Gary Johnson, pro-Bernie Sanders,
anti-Hillary, no-body-cares-about-any-Republicans-because-they're-irrelevant,
Democrats-still-nominally-should-represent-working-labor, generally pro
grassroots anti hegemonic aristocracy sentiment. A single dimensional left-
right axis does huge disservice to clear political discourse but I guess you
can say Reddit used to still be representative of the general coastal
progressive crowd and it's left-leaning. That is, economically more left-
socialistic than a center-right Obama, socially more progressive than a left-
leaning Obama, very right-conservative than a very left-interventionist Obama
foreign policy, very left-high-social-mobility vs a right-establishment
Obama's balance of power.

Then there's a hard shift to a pro-Hillary/establishment or you're a
sexist/racist/bigot/redneck/Russian spy/religious zealot/white/rural/non
college educated strawman dichotomy. I definitely wouldn't say r/politics is
left-leaning. See how far you'll get if you want to talk about leftist topics
like DAPL opposition, Yemen bombing opposition, Keith Ellison support, Tulsi
Gabbard support, single payer support, military budget increase opposition
etc.

> efforts appeared to be focused on motivating the Republican base to vote for
> Trump, and to drive Clinton voters to apathy or complacency. Neither of
> these would be achieved by trying to convince Clinton's fervent supporters
> on r/politics.

Sounds like you're referring to something other than r/politics. What are you
referring to?

~~~
shostack
Please keep in mind that a large part of the election interference from Russia
focused on _dividing_ the left. While there was obviously some of that already
happening, a big part of the efforts did in fact focus on trying to split the
vote of the Left and push people to Bernie/Stein/etc. The efforts don't have
to have been purely pro-Trump to have been effective.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Please keep in mind that a large part of the election interference from
> Russia focused on dividing the left.

No, 100% of it focussed on dividing and weakening America, guaranteeing that
_whoever_ won would be in a weaker position from which to counter Russian
geopolitical efforts.

~~~
shostack
I don't disagree, but when we delve into specific tactics, it has been
confirmed by the intelligence community that one approach they took was trying
to sow dissent among the left by splitting the voter base and trying to
suppress voter turnout for Hillary.

------
sbuccini
In other news, water is wet. Of course they're considering an IPO _eventually_
; they took $200m in funding just a few months back. I suspect people upvoting
the article didn't actually read it, or else they would have seen the quote
from Steve saying "the time frame is pretty far out".

------
fortythirteen
Short of the year right there. Reddit's revenue model makes Twitter look like
a cash cow.

~~~
ghostbrainalpha
> Reddit's (PRE-IPO) revenue model makes Twitter look like a cash cow.

> > Reddit's (POST-IPO) revenue model will make it the most profitable company
> in the world....

> > > Reddit's (POST - IPO) revenue model is LOOT CRATES.

~~~
shostack
I'll bet even now they are watching the EA Battlefront drama unfold and
thinking to themselves "how can we get in on that PR action?"

------
revelation
This is amazing. Reddit today is pretty much the same site it was in the
"Conde Nast dark ages", but with 100x the headcount and many many millions of
VC money (I guess you could call that "liabilities").

So what is it that now makes it an IPO candidate presumably worth many
magnitudes of what it was to Conde Nast?

------
midnitewarrior
Why do I have a feeling that Reddit Gold will be worth more than a share?

~~~
chii
Reddit good is worth nothing because you cannot convert it into cash.

Unless Reddit tanks completely, their shares must still be worth something!

------
Deimorz
The source interview is available here (35 mins long):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvRZx5gmajs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvRZx5gmajs)

------
ggg9990
The scale is impressive, but the site hasn't changed meaningfully since I
started using it a long time ago. This is a sign of 1) a perfected product 2)
a team that doesn't know why they're successful so is scared to change
anything 3) huge technical debt or 4) poor engineering staff.

------
yuhong
Which also reminds me that I am thinking seriously of Yishan-style CEOs and
the board of directors should follow the same standard too.

------
mywittyname
Reddit is considered a social network?

~~~
gooseus
What is your definition of social network?

Mine would be a system connecting multiple entities for the purpose of
socializing... or something like that.

So I'd say yes, imo.

~~~
wakamoleguy
To me, Reddit is clearly an example of social media, and less clearly a social
network. Compared to Facebook or LinkedIn, for example, it has much less focus
on the network aspect, connecting individual users, and a much larger focus on
what is being posted. On larger subreddits, most interactions are with random
strangers, rather than people you have some close relation to.

That being said, I do think the ability to create small communities and
organize that way could just be considered a different way of modeling
connections. Rather than peer-to-peer links, you have topic groups as the
primary structure.

There's definitely a spectrum, though, and I would be willing to accept it if
somebody made the argument that Reddit wasn't a social network.

~~~
baldfat
It's more social then Facebook to me. I get to meet new people based on
intrest (sub-reddits) Facebook and LinkedIn is how you connect with people you
actually know or 1 degree of separation.

Reddit exposed you to new ideas and people. Some good and mostly bad but it is
much more "Social" in action.

~~~
pvg
It's not a question of whether it's social but whether it's a 'social
network'. Facebook straight up tries to model a social network - you tell FB
about your relationship to other people. Reddit doesn't.

~~~
visarga
Yes it is. There are social networks based on persons you know, and social
networks based on interests.

~~~
pvg
There are, but reddit isn't really either.

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john58
Interesting!

