It’s a wrinkle in Reddit’s plan to go public, and a sign that plan is premature.
And unlike counterparts elsewhere, Reddit’s mods are unpaid.
Researchers at Northwestern University estimate that Reddit’s mods perform at least $3.4 million worth of labor annually.
Some third-party apps using Reddit content make money, which an owner of the still-unprofitable Reddit would probably prefer to share.
A bigger target is artificial intelligence companies such as OpenAI that create value by scraping Reddit’s forums to hone their own products.
Persons:
Steve Huffman, Willing, Huffman’s, Huffman, John Foley, Streisand Neto
Organizations:
YORK, Reuters, Northwestern University, Starbucks, Twitter, Thomson