Reddit

Reddit is a social news site on which registered users can post links to information they like on the Internet. Supports the voting system for messages you like.

Internet audience

2021: 18th most visited in the world for February

As of February 2021, Reddit is the 18th most visited in the world and the 7th most visited in the United States, according to Alexa Internet.

2020: In the top 50 largest Internet sites in the world

The largest Internet sites in the world for November 2020

History

2024: Going public with an estimate of $10 billion

On March 20, 2024, the Internet forum Reddit announced the conduct of the initial public offering (IPO) procedure. According to the results of this program, the company received an estimate of $10 billion.

The IPO amounted to 22,000,000 Class A common shares. Of these, 15,276,527 shares were sold directly by Reddit, and another 6,723,473 shares were some of the existing shareholders. The public offering price was $34 per security.

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Reddit shares trade under the ticker symbol RDDT. Reddit and selling shareholders raised about $750 million in the offering, it said. Securities during the IPO opened at $47 and reached a high of $57.80, which corresponds to a 70% increase in the first day.

Reddit is betting that data licensing can become the main source of income, and in its documentation states that it has entered into agreements on the relevant topic in the amount of $203 million. It is noted that the IPO of the Reddit site is the first major placement in the technology sector in 2024. In addition, this is also the first IPO of the social network since 2019, when the Pinterest service went public.

Morgan Stanley Goldman Sachs & Co Citigroup Deutsche Bank Securities MUFGПроцедуру IPO поддержали & Co., , BofA Securities, , , , Citizens JMP, Needham & Company, Piper Sandler, Raymond James, Academy Securities, Loop Capital Markets, Ramirez & Co., и Telsey Advisory Group. As part of the IPO, Reddit gave some of its key moderators and users, known as Redditors, the chance to buy shares through a direct equity distribution program. At the same time, Reddit users expressed skepticism about the IPO both because of the company's financial performance and because of its difficult relationship with moderators.^[1]

2023

Hackers' demand for ransom and cancellation of changes to API access

The group, hackers known as ALPHV/BlackCat, said it has 80 GB of confidential items data stolen from Reddit during a hack in February 2023. Hackers demand 4.5 million from the company dollars and the cancellation of changes in pricing to access API the platform, otherwise attackers promise to release all data to the public. This became known on June 19, 2023.

In February, Reddit confirmed that its systems had been hacked in a 'sophisticated and highly targeted phishing attack' in which attackers gained access to numerous internal documents, code and some of the company's internal business systems. However, Reddit quickly assured the public that its production systems were not violated, and user accounts were not compromised.

ALPHV/BlackCat hackers claim that they entered Reddit systems on February 5 and have already informed the company twice about the data theft. However, according to cybercriminals, the company did not even try to find out what data was stolen. Reddit probably considered this a common provocation, but it is now clear that hackers are telling the truth.

ALPHV/BlackCat is also trying to exploit a wave of resentment against Reddit after the company announced paid access to the platform's API. Access restrictions can disable third-party Reddit customers like Apollo. Platform users even staged a digital strike against the proposed pricing plan, closing thousands of Reddit-based subreddits and forums.

In our latest letter to Reddit representatives, we said we wanted $4.5 million in exchange for data deletion and our silence. We also warned that if we have to make this statement public, we will also demand the abolition of the new pricing for access to the API, ALPHV/BlackCat said in a statement.

Reddit representatives have not yet commented on the hackers' statement^[2].

Theft of internal documents and source code

A Reddit employee fell for a phishing campaign, which led to the compromise of documents, as well as personal data of employees and partners. This became known on February 10, 2023.

On the evening of February 5, 2023, the hacker gained access to Reddit's internal business systems, and then stole internal documents and source code.

The company said the cybercriminal used phishing bait on Reddit employees with a landing page mimicking the Reddit intranet site. On this site, an attacker tried to steal employee credentials and two-factor authentication tokens.

After one employee fell victim to a phishing attack, the hacker was able to infiltrate Reddit's systems, which contained internal documents, various dashboards and business systems. Major production systems (which run Reddit and store most of the company's data) are unaffected, the company said. Payment information, passwords and advertising performance indicators also remained secure.

An investigation into the incident found the stolen data included the personal information of "hundreds" of the company's partners, advertisers and current and former employees. Reddit claims the stolen information was not posted online.

Reddit learned of the hack after an employee self-reported the incident to the company's security team. It is worth noting that the affected employee had multifactor authentication enabled, which is mandatory on Reddit.

While Reddit did not share details of the phishing attack, they did cite a similar attack used to hack Riot Games. Then hackers stole the source code of League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics and other studio projects, as well as an outdated version of the anti-cheat^[3].

2021: The company's $6 billion valuation

And in February 2021, Reddit raised $250 million and was valued at $6 billion.

Notes