Who is the Owner of Reddit?

You must have heard about Reddit. It's one of the most visited sites on the internet and called "the front page of the internet. It is used by people to talk about all things and everything ranging from cricket, Bollywood, technology to world news. But have you ever wondered who is the owner of Reddit? How was this idea brought to life? Let us find out.

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Who is the Founder of Reddit?

Source: Sequioa Capital

Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian established Reddit in Medford, Massachusetts, on June 23rd, 2005. The pair were fellow roommates and batchmates at the University of Virginia, and started to create Reddit just for fun.

A Reddit post by Steve Huffman mentions: “Hey Everyone, I'm Steve, aka spez, the new CEO around here. For those of you who don't know me, I founded reddit ten years ago with my college roommate Alexis, aka kn0thing. Since then, reddit has grown far larger than my wildest dreams. I'm so proud of what it's become, and I'm very excited to be back.”

Their original concept was a mobile app to order food, but Y Combinator founder Paul Graham rejected the concept and challenged them to make it "the front page of the Internet.” That idea has now become Reddit.

Later in 2005, Christopher Slowe became the first employee of the company. It also merged with Aaron Swartz's company in early 2006. Swartz is sometimes given the credit of being a co-founder as well. The Y Combinator website mentions: “Chris Slowe was the first employee at Reddit. He worked at Reddit for five years, then Hipmunk for five years, and now he’s back at Reddit, writing code.”

Reddit's Early Sale

Reddit was sold only one year after its establishment. Reddit was bought by Condé Nast Publications for $10 million to $20 million in 2006 as per Crunchbase. Condé Nast is a renowned American media company.

Eventually the founders of the platform left, though Steve Huffman came back on board in 2015 as the new CEO, responsible for putting the company back on track. Reddit continued to mature and generate over 50 times more revenue in the following years.

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Who Owns Reddit Today?

Reddit has gone public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). This implies that its shares are available for purchase to everyone in the world and people can be part owners of the business entity.

The biggest single shareholder is Advance Publications, the company behind Condé Nast, which holds the most influence with super-voting shares that allow it to make important company decisions. Other substantial shareholders include Fidelity, Tencent and even the CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman as per Crunchbase. 

So unlike a company owned by one person or one family, Reddit is owned by millions of shareholders across the globe.

Who is the CEO of Reddit Right Now?

Steve Huffman, one of the co-founders and CEO of Reddit continues to lead the company. As per Demand Sage, the platform has an average of 121.4 million daily active users.

Important Facts About Reddit

If you are a student or a reader looking for the key facts about Reddit for competitive exams, a GK round, or for general awareness then this section is quite useful. 

Reddit is not owned by one person only. It is a public company held by millions of shareholders. Originally it was just a project of two college buddies in 2005, which was sold for less than $20 million and now it is worth billions of dollars.