Reddit facts for kids

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Reddit
Show dark mode version of logo Show light mode version of logo Logo used since November 2023
Screenshot Homepage, December 2023
Type of business	Public
Type of site	Social news website
Available in	Multilingual
Traded as	NYSE: RDDT (Class A) Russell 1000 component
Founded	June 23, 2005; 20 years ago (2005-06-23)
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, U.S.
No. of locations	5
Area served	Worldwide, except for Indonesia (without DNS) and China
Owners	Advance Publications (30%) Tencent (11%) Sam Altman (9%)
Founder(s)	Steve Huffman Aaron Swartz Alexis Ohanian
Key people	Steve Huffman (CEO) Jen Wong (COO) Drew Vollero (CFO) Christopher Slowe (CTO)
Industry	Social media
Revenue	US$1.30 billion (2024)
Operating income	US$–561 million (2024)
Net income	US$–484 million (2024)
Total assets	US$2.34 billion (2024)
Total equity	US$2.13 billion (2024)
Employees	2,233 (2024)
Parent	Reddit, Inc.
Website	(official) (corporate)
Advertising	Banner ads and promoted links
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Optional
Users	101.7 million DAU (2024)
Current status	Active
Content license	Proprietary
Written in	Python Go JavaScript

Reddit is an American social media website where people share news, photos, and stories. It works like a giant online message board. Users, called "redditors," can post content like links, text, images, and videos. Other users can then vote on these posts.

Posts are organized into different communities called "subreddits." Each subreddit is about a specific topic, like video games, science, or funny pictures. Posts with more "upvotes" move higher up on the page, so more people can see them. If a post gets very popular, it can even appear on the site's front page.

The site is run by Reddit, Inc., which is based in San Francisco. As of early 2025, Reddit was one of the top ten most visited websites in the world. Over half of its visitors come from the United States.

History of Reddit

Co-founder Alexis Ohanian speaking in October 2009

Co-founder Steve Huffman in 2017

How Reddit Started

Reddit was created in 2005 by two college roommates, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. They got the idea after attending a talk by programmer Paul Graham. He encouraged them to apply to his company, Y Combinator, which helps new companies get started.

Their first idea for a mobile food-ordering service didn't work out. So, they came up with a new idea for a website that Graham called the "front page of the Internet." Huffman and Ohanian launched Reddit in June 2005. At first, the site was empty, so the founders created fake accounts to post content and make it look busy.

A few months later, they were joined by programmer Aaron Swartz. He helped rewrite the site's code to make it work better. In 2006, the company Condé Nast Publications bought Reddit for about $10 to $20 million.

Changes in Leadership

Huffman and Ohanian left Reddit in 2009 to start a new company. After they left, others took over to help the site grow. In 2012, Yishan Wong became the CEO. Under his leadership, Reddit grew from 35 million users to 174 million.

In 2014, Wong left the company. Ellen Pao took over as CEO for a short time. She introduced new rules to make the site safer and more welcoming.

In 2015, Huffman and Ohanian returned to Reddit. Huffman became the CEO again. He focused on improving the mobile apps and redesigning the website to make it easier for new users. In 2020, Ohanian stepped down from the board and asked to be replaced by a Black candidate. Michael Seibel was then appointed to the board.

Becoming a Public Company

In March 2024, Reddit became a public company. This means that people can buy and sell shares of the company on the New York Stock Exchange. On its first day of trading, the company was valued at $9.5 billion.

How Reddit Works

Reddit is a website made up of content created by its users. This includes photos, videos, links, and text posts. The name "Reddit" sounds like the phrase "read it," as in "I read it on Reddit."

Voting and Karma

A key feature of Reddit is voting. Users can give "upvotes" (positive votes) or "downvotes" (negative votes) to posts and comments. Posts with more upvotes are more likely to be seen by others.

Users also earn "karma" points for their posts and comments. Karma shows how much a user has contributed to the Reddit community.

Subreddits

The content on Reddit is organized into communities called "subreddits." There are over 138,000 active subreddits on all kinds of topics. For example, r/science is for discussing science, and r/gaming is for talking about video games.

Anyone with an account can create a new subreddit for a topic they are interested in.

Users and Moderators

Creating a Reddit account is free. Users can post, comment, vote, and create their own subreddits.

Each subreddit is managed by moderators. Moderators are volunteers who make sure that people follow the rules of their community. They can remove posts and comments that break the rules. Reddit also has "admins," who are paid employees of the company. They oversee the entire site.

Website Features

The Reddit homepage in 2005. A classic version of this design is still available.

Reddit has added many features over the years to improve the user experience.

Reddit Premium

Reddit Premium is a paid membership that lets users browse the site without ads. It also gives them access to special features, like custom avatars and an exclusive subreddit called r/lounge.

Mobile Apps

For a long time, users had to use apps made by other companies to browse Reddit on their phones. In 2016, Reddit released its own official app for iOS and Android. The company has continued to add new features to its mobile apps, like chat and a video player.

Website Redesign

In 2018, Reddit launched a major redesign of its website. The old design had been in use for over a decade. The new design was created to be more modern and easier for new users to navigate. Users who prefer the old look can still use it by visiting a special web address.

The Reddit Logo

The Reddit logo used from 2017 to 2023

Reddit's mascot is a time-traveling alien named Snoo. Co-founder Alexis Ohanian drew the first version of Snoo in 2005. The name Snoo is a short version of "What's new?"

Snoo is designed to be simple and easy to customize. Many subreddits have their own version of Snoo as their logo. The official Snoo logo is often changed for holidays and special events.

Community and Culture

Reddit is known for its active and diverse community. Users on the site have come together for many different causes.

Charity and Activism

Reddit users have often used the site to raise money for good causes. They have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities. These include disaster relief efforts and food banks.

The site has also been a platform for political activism. For example, the 2017 March for Science, a global event to support science, started from a discussion on Reddit.

April Fools' Day Events

Every year on April Fools' Day, Reddit hosts a special event or social experiment. In 2015, they created "The Button," a simple button that each user could only press once. Over a million people clicked it.

In 2017, they launched r/place, a shared online canvas where users could place one colored pixel at a time. Millions of users worked together to create amazing works of art. The event was so popular that it was brought back in 2022 and 2023.

Ask Me Anything (AMAs)

"Ask Me Anything" events, or AMAs, are popular on Reddit. During an AMA, a person answers questions from Reddit users in real time. Many famous people have done AMAs, including former U.S. President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and actor George Clooney.

RedditGifts

RedditGifts was a program that organized gift exchanges among users. The most famous one was the Secret Santa exchange, which became the largest in the world. Thousands of users from around the globe would send gifts to each other. Reddit acquired the program in 2011.