Reddit Becomes a Public Company: Sweeping Changes to Expect for Redditors, Community Forums

Reddit just had its first-ever initial public offering debut on Thursday as the forum site becomes a public company.

With more people deciding on Reddit's operations and future other than Steve Huffman, it can be expected that changes will soon be felt on the platform, particularly the users' experience on the new Reddit.

Ad Formats on the Platform

If Reddit is serious about its plan to become a public company, the first aspect of the platform that would change is those that provide direct revenue to the company.

These changes have already been felt with the changes in its in-app rewards system and subscription services. However, the transition to a public company will probably be most notable in how the platform runs its advertisements.

This means users can expect to see more ads and product promotions, not limited to unskippable/5-second ads and pop-ups, to ensure that the platform is earning money from both premium and non-premium users.

Another profit avenue Reddit looks forward to is allowing AI firms to use their content as training data for AI models with compensation, of course.

Google has been reported to have signed such a deal with Reddit just a few days earlier.

Relationship with Subreddit Moderators

One thing that separates Reddit from other social media platforms is the power it gives to its forum moderators and administrators.

Weeks ahead of its IPO opening, Reddit cited the previous moderator revolt as one of the "risk factors" that could disrupt the company's operations and profits.

This refers to several community forums or subreddits closing down for weeks after Reddit removed third-party extensions many moderators use for its assistant bots.

Even now, some are still in protest against the changes that they turned their forum board filled with not safe for work posts, rendering the whole community unmonetizable.

Since Reddit does not have financial incentives to moderators as other platforms do with its influencers and content creators, it is easy to see how difficult any changes to each forum board will be.

With the company debuting on IPO, forum moderators might lose some leverage over their subreddits, particularly those that have big following.

As of writing, Reddit has yet to release plans to change its relationship with moderator- and administrator-led boards but hinted at intentions to provide incentives to its most dedicated users.