A social media platform is set to hit the stock market this week and some users are worried about what will happen to the site after it goes public.
Reddit is seeking a valuation of up to $6.4 billion in an Initial Public Offering, according to regulatory filings.
The company is set to offer about 22 million shares at a range of $31 to $34 per share and will hit the public market Thursday, according to Market Insider. The company offered some shares to select users ahead of the offering
The offering will be the first from a social media platform since Pintrest in 2019. The stock traded mostly sideways for the first couple of months and found its first major rally at the end of June.
Users across the site expressed concerns about the company controlling site going public and the effects it will have on the platform.
Users worry about IPO
The platform’s user base is drawn to the communities formed around niche topics moderated by volunteers.
“Moderating tiny communities has to be the work of the community members, and it is hard to imagine people volunteering to help Facebook, or Microsoft, or other publicly traded multi-billion-dollar industries,” Nathan Green, a Reddit user and science fiction and fantasy author told USA TODAY.
The company agreed with Green in its regulatory filings saying, “a large portion of the content on our platform comes from a small number of Redditors contributing to communities.” Bloomberg Opinion’s Dave Lee said that the risk section of Reddit’s…