Reddit was founded by Alexis Ohanion and Steve Huffman, who met at the University of Virginia. Shortly after graduation, they wanted to develop a site called “MyMobileMenu” with the help of startup investors YCombinator. The idea was ultimately blocked, but they had set their foot in the door. Just a short time later, they received startup capital from the same company for their new project “Reddit: the front page of the internet.” Psychiatrist Christopher Slowe and the now deceased internet activist Aaron Swartz, along with his company Infogami, joined the development team.
Despite personal setbacks, the young founders continued to work on the project. Condé Nast publications bought the company and kicked Swartz off the project shortly afterwards. The other founders also went their separate ways once their contracts were over.
While the developers initially used dummy accounts to boost activity on the site, Reddit already had 10,926 subreddits by 2008. In 2011, the number climbed to 60,191 and Reddit climbed out of Condé Nast’s shadow, and became independent under their parent company Advance Publications. A year earlier, the platform introduced the Reddit Gold subscription model. Gold editors get access to the “Lounge,” a restricted subreddit, and a larger range of functions for around $4 per month.
Reddit became one of the first major websites to accept payment in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin for their paid subscription Reddit Gold, gifts, and Redditmade (subreddit fan articles that are for sale).
The company and its founders attracted a great deal of attention when they protested against the US draft law against online piracy (SOPA) in 2012, and, together with well-known websites like Wikipedia, took their entire domain offline in a “blackout.”
The site administrators are still committed to protecting freedom of speech and their users’ anonymity. This is expressed both in the page guidelines and in the Reddiquette (etiquette for Reddit). Transparency is provided by the transparency reports.
Steven Huffman returned as CEO in 2015. At that time, Reddit employed about 100 people, climbing to 230 in 2017. During these years, the platform has consisted mainly of American users. However, foreign language communities are starting to pop up, and the Reddit interface is available in over 90 languages – including “Pirate Slang” (“Arrrrrrrrrrrrrr”).