Why is Reddit losing money? Ahead of its IPO, Reddit's spending on research and development amounted to an eye-popping 55% of its revenue.

Reddit kind of anticipates this critique in its investor docs, and argues that it didn’t really start operating as a serious business until 2018 when it finally started “meaningful monetization efforts” — that is, trying to make money for real.

But that’s still six years ago. What has Reddit been doing since then?

One big, obvious answer: It has been hiring a lot of engineers and spending a lot of money on their salaries…

…What am I missing? I asked Reddit comms for comment but they declined, citing the company’s quiet period before the IPO.

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  • spider@lemmy.nzOP
    6·
    4 months ago

    Basically Reddit is a scam in terms of investment.

    By the way, I think r/WallStreetBets users should set up an alternate community elsewhere (like here); I wouldn’t put it past management to shut that sub down if users mention anything about torpedoing the IPO.

    • livus@kbin.social
      5·
      4 months ago

      WallStreetBets users should really set up an alternate community elsewhere (like here)

      Here as in the fediverse, maybe, I don’t think lemmy.ml mods would be too welcoming, seeing as how they are marxist leninists. XD

      Seriously though I’m sure WSB guys have a ton of offsite back channels. Aside from short squeezes that sub seems to be running pump and dump schemes.