Short answers, pulled from the story.
Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian launched Reddit in June 2005 while they were roommates at the University of Virginia. The pair attended a lecture by Paul Graham during their spring break, which led to an invitation into Y Combinator's first startup incubator class.
Reddit went public on the 21st of March 2024 after filing confidentially for an initial public offering in December 2021. The site debuted on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol RDDT at $34 per share before trading opened the next day at $47 per share and closed near $50.44.
Reddit organizes content into user-created boards called subreddits which began appearing in 2008. The platform introduced real-time chat software in 2017 followed by community chat rooms in 2018 and private messaging replaced by Reddit Chat in June 2025.
Posts receive upvotes or downvotes that determine their visibility on front pages while registered users earn karma points based on community feedback. Moderators manage specific communities without pay and users celebrate their cake day annually on account creation anniversaries with a small slice icon appearing next to their name.
The founders sold the site to Condé Nast Publications on the 31st of October 2006 for between $10 million and $20 million. Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian left the company in 2009 only to return five years later to lead its growth.
A data breach by BlackCat hacker gang claimed responsibility for stealing 80 GB of compressed data in February 2023. The Federal Trade Commission released reports in September 2024 detailing how user data practices put individuals vulnerable to identity theft and stalking.