Reddit's IPO success hinges on infamously unruly user base

This week marks the deadline for the company’s most loyal posters and moderators to preregister for the chance to buy shares in Reddit’s impending initial public offering, before they start trading on the open market.

Reddit’s users love to complain about Reddit. They also love to use it.

This week marks the deadline for the company’s most loyal posters and moderators to preregister for the chance to buy shares in Reddit’s impending initial public offering, before they start trading on the open market. There will be space for about 75,000 users, according to a person familiar with the matter. The move is intended to give the people who moderate Reddit’s forums and write its content for free the chance to reap some financial rewards.

So far, the reaction on the platform has been skeptical. The site’s r/WallStreetBets forum has threatened to bet against the stock, with many people noting that the company still loses money two decades into its existence. (Reddit lost US$90.8 million last year, down from $158.6 million the year before.) Some have complained that the invitation to invest fails to make up for the unpaid labor they’ve invested making the site work. The complaints echo another fight last year, when many forums protested Reddit’s decision to raise prices for access to its data, complaining that the move made it too expensive to build apps for the platform.