Reddit Advised to Target at Least $5 Billion Valuation in IPO

ardi60@reddthat.com to Reddit@lemmy.world – 141 points –
Reddit Advised to Target at Least $5 Billion Valuation in IPO
bloomberg.com
36

Thank fuck Lemmy exists. Reddit has been a shell of its former self for a very long time but in the last two years or so it’s gotten awful. Things will only get worse once Reddit goes public.

Lemmy reminds me of what Reddit was when I joined in 2011. Much smaller user base that tends to be tech savvy. It’s an old school forum vibe I thought was gone forever.

plus it doesn't have that whole half-the-userbase-is-US-Military-bots thing goin on

There were definitely more than just US Military bots on that site.

True. There are also Israeli military bots, and Russian military bots, and Chinese military bots.

Don't forget all the bots run by various political parties and corporations.

yeah i'm just referring to the study that was published and then hidden. but i think if you scroll through anything stock-related you'll notice lots of bots too. i think Citadel plays a huge role here

Instead we have half a userbase of hardcore leftists. I'd really like to have a solid non-political platform instead.

did you just say you don't mind capitalism destroying all semblance of life

No, I said I don't want to talk about politics and politicize every single discussion.

And yet here you are… the only person in the comment section mentioning politics.

In my experience people like you who take every opportunity to complain about a site/user base being “too political” are only upset their own views are unpopular. Political discussion tends to magically become acceptable when they agree with the prevailing sentiment.

I agree with you.

The people who say, “I don’t like to talk about politics” are the ones who have the worst opinions about shit and know they will get called out and god forbid anyone not like my opinions!

It's a fair criticism and on topic, you are allowed to disagree without jumping down his throat.

Left leaning people are more likely to be adventurous and educated, too things that would lead someone to a new site with a tech savvy user base.

Nope, I don't engage in any such discussion unless forced to, in which case I make my point and withdraw.

i wish i wasn't homeless so that i could just plug my ears like you

You shouldn't have mentioned it. They're like the infected in TLOU. If you make a sound, you done for!

It’s insufferable. Originally Lemmy looked promising but it’s basically just r/Politics everywhere now. If I wanted r/Politics I would have stayed on Reddit.

Which Lemmy? The code was made by Marxist–Leninist, or at least people claiming to be. One of the largest instances is lemmy.ml and they're filled with tankies/vatniks/commieboos. lemmly.world being left leaning is just a happen stance of anti authority and educated. The culture reminds me a lot of old slashdot that had a mix of socialist/communists and libertarians.

Sounds nice but I think any platform with humans in it will have politics in it.

Work harder unpaid mods! Spez needs a bigger yacht!

I can't believe this idiots still on reddit believe it's "their community" in a publically traded company.

I think they'll start to realize when Reddit starts posting quarterly profits/losses and we hear about spez's fat paychecks.

They'll post continuous losses like every social media tech company, and then the users will really begin to feel the screws tighten so far they won't be able to breathe anymore.

Spez doesn’t have a yacht. That’s what got his dick all tied up into a tiny knot in the first place.

$5 billion dollar valuation - never turned a profit ???

Isn’t the venture scene’s motto “loss is the product” or something?

Modern tech giants keep taking funding rounds to grow, because what's profit now when you can spend and get bigger, so profit later can be even more huge?

Except investors are finally waking up to the fact that growth doesn't help much if the business isn't profitable, now or ever.

Reddit can pound its chest about how much it thinks it's worth, but that's all it is.

Archived link, for those who are paywalled.

I'm hoping for some mod rebellion crashing this value even further. And by "rebellion" I don't mean just posting Oliver pics; I mean at the very least ditching the subreddits that they moderate. Perhaps a few other things like:

  • organising mass emigration
  • scorching the earth behind (encouraging users to migrate/delete content)
  • filling the site with crap that would discourage other users from ever registering into the site (goatse tier)

I don't think that they'll have the courage to do any of those things though. A Reddit mod - or at least, the ones still modding Reddit - is that sort of dog that someone kicks and then it'll still lick their boot. Spez outright mocked them as "landed gentry" and they're still working for free there, it can't get lower than that.

Everyone who wanted out is already out. Current mods have fallen for the narrative or have been installed by reddit.

I think that more people will want to leave, as the IPO progresses. Including mods.

My main concern is that won't be fast enough to punish Reddit Inc.

Google is over-valuing reddit right now, and I sincerely doubt it will continue because their entire search platform is worse than ever.

So this stock likely will not do well in the long run. It may be as simple as virtually all the search traffic being cut the minute they release generative search as a default option.