A few questions about the impending Reddit IPO

Reddit’s debut will help kick off 2022 in style

The Exchange joked earlier this week that Christmas had come early thanks to a particular SPAC deck providing us with some good fun. Ha. Little did we know what was coming.

Social hub Reddit filed to go public, TechCrunch reports. You know what that means: It’s time to ask questions.

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Often The Exchange digs into topics and companies that we cannot claim seniority in. Not that we mind, but it’s worth admitting. When it comes to Reddit, however, we have bona fides. I’ve had my account since June 2008, and have been a casual user even longer, so we have the standing to put a few questions into the conversation.

TechCrunch has tracked the company since time immemorial. Most recently, Reddit raised a huge venture round at a roughly $10 billion valuation. That means that its IPO is not merely the exit of one of tech’s best-known companies — it’s also a decacorn debut to help kick off 2022. Consider us excited.

Here’s what we’ll explore when we get our hands on its S-1: We’re curious about content moderation costs, product expansion, the company’s revenue mix, how frequently governments come up in the filing, and what the unicorn has to say about crypto.

Content moderation costs?

A key element of the Reddit platform is independently-run communities that self-police. If you want to better understand what that means, post a Nickelback video in the ProgMetal subreddit. You’ll learn quickly!

But Reddit proper must have a material content moderation budget to keep scum and illegal content, as well as government and corporate astroturfing, off its platform. Such efforts will require both software and human inputs, so we presume that this particular cost will prove significant.