Company Facts
Founded: June 23rd, 2005
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
Founders: Alexis Ohanian, Steve Huffman, Aaron Swartz
Platform Types: Social Media, Bookmarking, News Aggregator
Parent Company: Advance Publications
Marketing Information
With over 330 million users, Reddit is the fifth most visited website in the US. Reddit is primarily a social sharing site that allows users to post links, images, videos, and text to different discussion boards called subreddits. Users can upvote or downvote posts and comments depending on how they feel about them. Posts that receive lots of upvotes rise to the top of the subreddit and become more visible. Comments that receive the most upvotes also appear at the top of the comments section of each post.
Subreddits can be created and moderated by any user, which is probably why there are so many—well over a million as of right now. Many subreddits focus on a certain hobby or interest like cooking or photography, which makes reaching your target audience with ad campaigns easier.
You can search for subreddits related to your product or service by using the Reddit search bar or a website like SnoopSnoo. After deciding which subreddit to target, use Reddit’s simple ad creation tool to create a link, video, or text ad.
Link ads are great for driving traffic to your website, as are video ads. Text ads are better for building brand awareness because they direct traffic to a Reddit post with your chosen text. This type of ad encourages users to comment and engage.
If you have a large advertising budget, you can also purchase display ads through the managed advertising program by contacting Reddit directly.
Here are some other novels ways to advertise on Reddit:
- If you or your company has a compelling backstory, host your own interview on a popular subreddit called “Ask Me Anything.”
- Make a Reddit post to conduct market research and get feedback on your product or service.
- Contact the moderator of a subreddit related to your business and ask permission to host a giveaway.
- Create a Reddit profile page for your company or project. Use it to curate interesting content and promote your brand.
Notable Employees
Steve Huffman
Alexis Ohanian
Christopher Slowe
Aaron Swartz
Yishan Wong
Ellen Pao
History
Reddit was founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, both students at the University of Virginia. Christopher Slowe and Aaron Swartz joined the team in the early days and are sometimes considered founding members.
The concept for Reddit was to be a “front page of the Internet” where users could rank content from around the web. The original Reddit website launched in 2005 and was very basic. It didn’t allow users to make their own subreddits—that feature was added in 2008. The first version didn’t even enable users to comment on any of the posts. All subscribers could do was view, upvote, and downvote content.
Still, Reddit gained enough popularity to attract the attention of media giant Condé Nast. They decided to purchase Reddit in 2006.
In the following years, Reddit continued to gain popularity, but struggled with profitability. Advertisers were hesitant to place ads on the platform because Reddit didn’t adequately monitor the content that users posted. Reddit allowed users to moderate their own subreddits, which allowed some extremely controversial communities to form, including one dedicated to sharing suggestive images of teenagers.
Understandably, some brands didn’t want to be associated with Reddit after these incidents.
Internal instability also threatened Reddit. In 2009, Huffman and Ohanian left to pursue a new venture. Swartz had been fired by Condé Nast in 2007, so the only founding member left was Slowe. He too moved on in 2010, leaving the company without as much direction and leadership.
In 2011, Condé Nast made Reddit an independent subsidiary of their parent company Advance Publications, allowing Reddit to hire a CEO, form an ad sales team, and manage its own operations.
In 2012, Yishan Wong joined Reddit as its new CEO. He had previously worked as a senior engineering manager at PayPal and a director of engineering at Facebook. Under Wong’s direction, Reddit’s user base grew from 35 million to 174 million. He left in 2014 due to burnout.
Ellen Pao, the head of business development, stepped up as interim CEO. Around the same time, Ohanian returned to Reddit as the executive chairman. During her tenure, Pao tried to curb harassment and bullying on the platform. She resigned in 2015 after her decision to fire a popular employee resulted in major backlash from the Reddit community.
After Pao’s departure, Huffman took over as CEO. Under his leadership, Reddit underwent a major redesign, introduced a more viable mobile platform, and launched video capabilities. Stricter content policies were also put in place, and a number of offensive subreddits were shut down, which may have helped change the public perception of Reddit.
Many large, influential brands have advertised on Reddit in recent years, including Welch’s and Audi. More and more advertisers and brands are interested in working with Reddit and reaching its large user base, possibly thanks to increased oversight and stricter content policies that have restored trust in the platform.
Marketing Tools
Reddit Ads Tool
Reddit Profile Pages
Educational Resources
Advertising Help Center
Reddit Ads Subreddit Community
Latest Reddit Announcements
Reddit Help Center
The Official Reddit Blog
Latest Posts About Reddit
Latest News from Reddit's Official Blog
Reddit maintains an official blog on RedditBlog.com (formerly blog.Reddit.com) which posts about the company and latest business development. They also maintain various subreddits (sub sections of the website) to communicate with users, businesses, and marketers. Subreddits such as /r/RedditAds for advertising and /r/Blog for updates on the company. Below we post the latest news from the official Reddit Blog.
References
http://www.siliconbeat.com/2014/11/14/yishan-wong-leaves-reddit-because-hes-completely-worn-out/
https://www.shopify.com/blog/119995717-findlay-hats-viral-reddit-post
https://blog.hootsuite.com/reddit-ads-business/
https://www.wired.com/2015/07/reddit-ceo-ellen-pao-steps-down-huffman-replacement/
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/29/how-reddit-plans-to-make-money-through-advertising.html
https://mashable.com/2014/12/03/history-of-reddit/