Search Captions & Ask AI

Will Reddit's IPO Be Successful?

February 28, 2024 / 07:57

This episode discusses Reddit's upcoming IPO, its valuation, and the implications for the tech market. Key topics include Reddit's user base, advertising model, and a recent deal with Google.

The hosts analyze Reddit's potential valuation of $5 billion, noting its position as the third most visited site in the US. They compare it to other tech companies and discuss the significance of its advertising revenue.

Steve Huffman, Reddit's CEO, is mentioned for his approach to content moderation and the company's evolution. The hosts express optimism about Reddit's IPO success, citing the current market conditions.

They also touch on the involvement of Sam Altman, an AI CEO, and his investment in Reddit, which could enhance its valuation. The conversation highlights the importance of Reddit as a global brand, particularly among younger users.

The episode concludes with a light-hearted discussion about Reddit's community and the hosts' own presence on the platform.

TL;DR

Reddit's IPO could be a game-changer for tech, with a $5 billion valuation and significant market interest.

Video

00:00:00
Reddit has filed to go public finally
00:00:02
this will be the first major Tech IPO of
00:00:04
the year and the first social media IPO
00:00:05
since Pinterest in 2019 if you can
00:00:08
believe it the the platform's bankers
00:00:10
are looking for a valuation of at least
00:00:11
$5 billion not too big it has 73 million
00:00:15
daily active users and one of the most
00:00:17
visited websites in the US in an unusual
00:00:19
move Reddit will reportedly offer 75,000
00:00:22
power users the chance to buy shares at
00:00:24
the IPO price I think other companies
00:00:26
have done similar things first off
00:00:28
Reddit has been around since 2005
00:00:30
um this will be a test for IPOs in
00:00:33
general the advert their business is
00:00:35
largely advertising um and uh now they
00:00:39
just there's and the probably the most
00:00:41
controversial thing is this licensing a
00:00:43
data licensing agreement they just
00:00:44
announced a $60 million deal with Google
00:00:46
last week which I think people inside
00:00:48
who use the company are not happy about
00:00:52
um so any thoughts talk me talk to me
00:00:55
about this IPO well first off everyone's
00:00:58
sort of waiting for the market to thaw
00:01:01
the IPO market and it probably is
00:01:03
beginning or the atmospherics are lining
00:01:05
up just because of the acceleration in
00:01:07
the markets the markets are reaching new
00:01:09
highs and Nvidia has totally inspired
00:01:12
kind of the animal spirits appear to be
00:01:14
returning and there's several IPOs lined
00:01:16
up and everyone's waiting for one to
00:01:19
really pop whether it's going to be
00:01:20
Reddit or Shen which is kind of the
00:01:22
biggest now the biggest fast fashion
00:01:24
company in the world I like Reddit a lot
00:01:27
I actually think this IPO could be
00:01:30
a a real winner because I mean the first
00:01:32
thing I did just very basic I type in
00:01:34
most traffic sites in America number one
00:01:37
is Google number two is YouTube number
00:01:40
three Reddit and number my kids use it
00:01:43
and number four is Facebook number five
00:01:46
Amazon number six PornHub number seven
00:01:48
Wikipedia and number eight Yahoo and my
00:01:51
attitude is Yahoo over Twitter it's not
00:01:54
crazy I'm a shareholder in Yahoo
00:01:55
probably but my thesis around Yahoo is
00:01:58
the same as my thesis around Reddit and
00:02:00
is remember those charts I always used
00:02:02
to put out 10 15 years ago saying
00:02:05
newspapers command 7% of people's
00:02:07
attention but they get 18% of the
00:02:09
advertising Revenue whereas the internet
00:02:10
is 30% of people's attention but only 9%
00:02:14
of money and over time the two calibrate
00:02:18
they two they normalize they come in
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line with each other and so when you
00:02:22
look at the most traffic sites in the
00:02:24
world they're usually you know one plus
00:02:27
trillion dollar companies and so this
00:02:29
company is going to go out supposedly at
00:02:31
a valuation of 5 billion and it's the
00:02:33
third most traffic site in the United
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States enough said it's a bargain they
00:02:37
should be able to they should be able to
00:02:39
figure this out still rely on
00:02:40
Advertising quite a bit like that that
00:02:42
if you look at the numbers it's it's a
00:02:44
really heavy and so they're they're
00:02:46
subject toes of the market I get it I
00:02:49
get it you're right so does Google
00:02:51
that's all this is this is a much
00:02:52
smaller company like I've interviewed at
00:02:54
CEO Sam uh I mean um uh Steve Huffman
00:02:58
quite a bit as I like like him he's he
00:03:00
was really first on figuring out content
00:03:02
moderation they of course had a terrible
00:03:04
back and you know around some really
00:03:06
heinous sites there um on the site um
00:03:10
you know it's always been a little bit
00:03:11
of a Shaggy Dog of a social media they
00:03:13
did a $60 million deal they have a
00:03:16
little bit of that AI spice on their on
00:03:19
their you know on their on their meal
00:03:22
they got a 60 million bucks I think
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that's going to go up or they might take
00:03:25
the content
00:03:26
inhouse this is the risk they can't be
00:03:30
Pinterest and snap that have kind of
00:03:32
gone sideways and always end up being
00:03:33
the little engines that could what I was
00:03:35
thinking yeah but if they if they
00:03:36
continue to be one of the most traffic
00:03:38
sites in the world they can put an AI
00:03:39
spin on this at five bill I mean let me
00:03:42
just be transparent I'm going to try and
00:03:43
get stock in this thing I think this
00:03:45
thing I think this could be either Sheen
00:03:48
or Reddit are going to set the IPO
00:03:50
Market on fire I think Sheen is a is a
00:03:52
retailer though of course right but Shen
00:03:54
I mean it's another one we'll talk about
00:03:56
this another day but Sheen is now the
00:03:57
largest fast fashion company in the
00:03:59
world yeah and one of these one or both
00:04:03
of these is going to have a big pop
00:04:05
because the market the IPO Market has
00:04:06
been so thaw that I bet these get priced
00:04:09
fairly
00:04:10
conservatively and there's so much money
00:04:12
on five billion is low is very low
00:04:14
that's nothing and that's the problem is
00:04:16
a lot if it sticks at five billion it's
00:04:17
not going to get a lot of anal coverage
00:04:19
no one really cares about million
00:04:20
companies do make money as I I think the
00:04:22
money I think they're cash dep positive
00:04:23
I believe um what's interesting here's
00:04:25
one that that that 9% of the voting
00:04:28
power at Reddit open a i CEO Sam Alman
00:04:30
there he is pops up he invested um at a
00:04:34
time when they were struggling a little
00:04:35
bit $60 million in shares because they
00:04:37
were going to go IPO and then they
00:04:38
weren't and then they were sort of owned
00:04:39
by K nask and they weren't you know what
00:04:41
I mean they went through a lot this
00:04:43
company has gone through a lot of
00:04:44
iterations yeah um and you know sort of
00:04:46
coming out maybe they should be bought
00:04:48
this people thought about buying them
00:04:50
then there was the controversy over
00:04:51
those terrible the Trump forums and
00:04:54
everything else and then I had an
00:04:56
interview with Steve and he said he was
00:04:58
the first CEO to say to me about content
00:05:00
moderation you know we were very they're
00:05:03
very they were the fir they were you
00:05:04
know the the the Free Speech wing of the
00:05:06
Free Speech party right those gu of of
00:05:09
the people I interviewed but he was also
00:05:11
the first person who said to me some
00:05:13
people are just malignant actors and
00:05:15
we're going to throw them out and nobody
00:05:17
had ever said that and they had no
00:05:19
resources to do it and that was a big
00:05:22
deal when he said that to me I was sort
00:05:23
of like this the company with the least
00:05:26
ability to do anything about it was
00:05:28
articulating something that just made
00:05:30
perfect sense right and this was a
00:05:32
company that was so free speechy you
00:05:34
couldn't I mean they and they got in
00:05:36
trouble for it
00:05:37
very I share tell me about Altman what
00:05:40
do you think about Altman just curious
00:05:42
first his investment gets this thing at
00:05:44
least another billion dollar in
00:05:46
valuation because it's more of that AI
00:05:47
sprinkling it's more that AI pixie
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everybody thinks Sam Alman maybe with
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the exception of Jensen Hong is the
00:05:54
smartest person in the world and he's an
00:05:56
investor and a shareholder here one of
00:05:58
these companies is going to going to
00:05:59
have a triple digit opening day uh in
00:06:02
the IP Market we're going to be off the
00:06:04
races I like interesting goodness I
00:06:06
think this is a great I like it yeah I
00:06:08
like it a lot and only that Reddit it's
00:06:10
a global brand people know it it is it's
00:06:12
a global brand what how many Global
00:06:14
Brands can you pick up for five billion
00:06:15
bucks right not just that it's a youth
00:06:17
brand too my kids I was surprised they
00:06:19
use two things YouTube quite a bit but
00:06:21
Reddit just as much it's a really and
00:06:24
they don't use it for chitchatting they
00:06:25
use it for videos and consumption which
00:06:27
they don't like they don't like Tik Tok
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I know it sounds crazy but they find it
00:06:30
too performative and they love they
00:06:32
think Reddit feels more real um it's an
00:06:35
entertainment vehicle for them so you
00:06:37
know it's a a really interesting hack
00:06:39
that I didn't discover type in your
00:06:42
search and then add the word Reddit and
00:06:44
see what comes up oh really interest
00:06:47
there's a whole thing on why we're so
00:06:48
annoying on Reddit just do you know that
00:06:51
oh really they try they vote about which
00:06:53
one of us is more annoying that that's a
00:06:55
tough one that's not an easy call No but
00:06:59
really that's a photo finish I'm
00:07:02
insufferable but interesting you are the
00:07:04
most annoying I'm sorry to tell you but
00:07:06
oh you already decided is that Reddit I
00:07:08
no I looked at it I'm looking at Reddit
00:07:10
I like I there's there's whole sections
00:07:12
talking about oh good we're back for
00:07:14
those of you wondering we could go 10
00:07:16
minutes without talking about us tell me
00:07:17
about your book Cara no no no but let me
00:07:20
tell you I went there and I it popped
00:07:22
right up it was I was looking have you
00:07:23
heard about our therapy session Jesus
00:07:25
this really is a Scot love that people
00:07:27
love that it is Scot and Care show but
00:07:29
I'm saying it was really interesting it
00:07:31
was it's just endlessly interesting
00:07:33
information but there's a whole section
00:07:35
of whether we're annoying or not that's
00:07:36
well the answer is yes yes but but as
00:07:39
long as we're entertaining that's fine
00:07:41
that's what I said I was like I almost
00:07:43
popped in and went hey girls Reddit
00:07:45
watch out I'm I'm calling it now redit
00:07:48
Reddit first first trade first trade way
00:07:55
up

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