Why is Reddit losing money? Ahead of its IPO, Reddit's spending on research and development amounted to an eye-popping 55% of its revenue.

Reddit kind of anticipates this critique in its investor docs, and argues that it didn’t really start operating as a serious business until 2018 when it finally started “meaningful monetization efforts” — that is, trying to make money for real.

But that’s still six years ago. What has Reddit been doing since then?

One big, obvious answer: It has been hiring a lot of engineers and spending a lot of money on their salaries…

…What am I missing? I asked Reddit comms for comment but they declined, citing the company’s quiet period before the IPO.

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  • livus
    13•9 months ago

    It would have an impact on their current profit or loss, yes. Stock options are an expense in accounting.

    Even without the options though, look at the actual stock they handed out:

    Huffman’s compensation package for 2023 was worth $193.2 million, which included salary of $341,346, stock awards worth $98.3 million and stock options valued at $93.8 million. Wong’s total comp of $92.5 million included a base salary of $583,820, stock awards of $45.7 million and stock options worth $45.7 million.