Reddit, home to cute cat pictures, investment advice, niche hobby discussions, celebrity interviews, edgy memes, wholesome memes and everything in between, has been facilitating discussions on the internet since 2005. The site has about 57 million daily active users who post and consume news, memes, questions and even stock tips that can roil markets.
The company filed for an initial public offering at the end of 2021. As it prepares to go public, it’s looking to turn a profit for the first time. The company is charging for access to its application programming interface, or API. The price hikes have led some beloved third-party Reddit apps such as Apollo to shut down, instigating an uproar among the website’s community of volunteer moderators, who often rely on third-party apps to run the site’s 100,000+ discussion communities, called subreddits.
Despite extensive protests in which thousands of moderators took their communities private, the API pricing changes took effect July 1 as planned. Under pressure from Reddit admins, nearly all communities have reopened. But tensions remain high, and some say that if Reddit doesn’t rebuild trust, its most passionate users will go elsewhere.
“Reddit is nothing without those communities. They need us far more than we need them,” said David DeWald, a moderator of the r/Arcade1up subreddit and a community manager for the telecommunications company Ciena.
The rise of Reddit
When Reddit co-founders Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman were in their senior year at the University of Virginia, startup accelerator Y Combinator was just getting off the ground. The two had met founder Paul Graham at a talk, and he suggested that the recent graduates build what he called “the front page of the Internet.” Ohanian and Huffman jumped at the chance. Y Combinator invested just $12,000 in 2005, and Reddit officially became a part of its first batch of companies.
“For the first probably like month, month and a half, a good number of the folks posting were just me and Steve under usernames that we just invented from like objects in the room, just random stuff just so that it would look like there was some activity,” Ohanian said.
Reddit founders Alexis Ohanian (L) and Steve Huffman (R)
Reddit
But real user activity picked up, and just 16 months after its founding, Reddit was acquired for $10 million by Condé Nast. By 2010, co-founders Ohanian and Huffman were no longer involved in day-to-day operations, but traffic was booming. In 2011, Reddit was spun out as an independent company, operating as a subsidiary of Condé Nast’s owner, Advance Publications.
“I think it was fashionable back then to want to just grow and Facebook had proven out so well that if you focus on growth and then have a critical mass of users, you could make money,” Ohanian said.
On the one hand, Reddit’s niche communities were ideal places for target advertising, but the company’s permissive attitude toward questionable content also posed a problem.
“Reddit is kind of a perfect environment for advertising because the communities can get so specific and so passionate about whatever it is that they’re discussing,” said Debra Aho Williamson, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence. “But Reddit has had challenges over the years with hate speech and other things that are maybe not brand-friendly.”
Ohanian rejoined Reddit as executive chairman in 2014 and Huffman rejoined as CEO the next year. This time around, Ohanian said, he wanted to reign in some of the site’s more toxic subcultures. In 2015, a new anti-harassment policy led to the banning of some hateful communities, but certainly not all.
Then, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, Ohanian resigned from the company’s board, urging Reddit to replace him with a Black candidate, which the company honored.
“I hoped that Reddit would finally get a hate policy so that we could ban those thousands of hate communities that were up, which happened, you know, a few weeks after I resigned,” Ohanian said. Reddit ultimately banned about 2,000 subreddits, including r/The_Donald, r/ChapoTrapHouse and r/gendercritical.
Now, Reddit wants to turn a profit. With companies such as OpenAI and Google scraping the internet to train large language models, Reddit wants them to pay for its data. Huffman announced in April that Reddit would start charging for access to its API, the gateway through which companies can download all of Reddit’s user-generated content.
But it’s not just tech giants who use Reddit’s API. Many popular third-party mobile apps and moderator tools also rely on API access, which was previously free. These third-party apps are largely just alternatives to Reddit’s official mobile app, which didn’t even exist until 2016. But when developers learned about the new pricing structure at the end of May, many realized they couldn’t afford it.
“Most companies, whenever they have significant API changes, you know, they give anywhere from like three to sometimes like 15 months for developers to acclimate to these big changes,” said Dac Croach, a moderator of the r/Gaming subreddit, now the third-largest community on the site. “And with Reddit kind of coming out of the gate and saying, you know, you have 30 days to figure this out […] I mean, that is an impossible task for many of those third-party developers.”
The developer of Apollo said it would cost him over $20 million per year to operate given the new pricing structure. Apollo shut down, along with other popular third-party apps such as rif is fun, Reddplanet and Sync, a blow to their loyal users who said they have sleeker user interfaces and more features than the official Reddit app.
Jakub Porzycki | Getty Images
The pricing changes caused a particular uproar in a subreddit for blind users, who relied upon many of the third-party apps’ accessibility features. Blind moderators claim it’s very difficult to moderate on mobile using Reddit’s app, something Reddit says it’s currently working to improve.
In total, over 8,000 subreddits participated in a sitewide blackout from June 12 to June 14 to protest the changes. Many communities stayed closed much longer, while others labeled themselves “Not safe for work,” automatically making them ineligible spaces for advertising.
While most communities have returned to business as usual, there are some notable exceptions. For example, the r/pics and r/gifs subreddits are now limited to featuring pics and gifs of comedian John Oliver. The moderators of the popular Ask Me Anything subreddit said they will no longer organize interviews with celebrities and other high-profile figures, which has long been a major driver of engagement.
“They’re not burning things down. They’re saying, hey, you know, you didn’t listen to me then, can you listen to me now?” said Croach.
Now, as Reddit marches toward an IPO, the tech world is watching to see how these tensions play out.
“Everyone in this situation is passionate for the success of Reddit. Reddit needs to realize that passion is what’s driving all of this anger,” said DeWald of the r/Arcade1up subreddit. “They need to work with us and work with other moderators and work with the app developers to find a solution that’s better for everyone, including Reddit, because Reddit needs us to be there.”
George Kurtz, chief executive officer of Crowdstrike Inc., listens during an interview in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019.
The security software maker said it expects revenue to range between $1.14 billion and $1.15 billion this quarter, falling short of the $1.16 billion estimate from analysts polled by LSEG. CrowdStrike called for adjusted earnings per share between 82 cents and 84 cents for the quarter, versus an LSEG estimate of adjusted earnings of 81 cents per share.
CrowdStrike also said it is still feeling a pinch from last July’s widespread outage that temporarily halted flights and forced hospitals to push off some procedures. The company recently ended its incentive program, known as customer commitment packages, to lure and maintain customers on the heels of the incident.
Finance chief Burt Podbere said the program shrank revenue by about $11 million in the quarter. He also said the company expects a $10 million to $15 million impact on revenue through the end of the fiscal year.
“It’s the combination of a full valuation and a theme of one-time events that keep coming up that makes it difficult for us to underwrite meaningful upside at these levels,” wrote Evercore ISI’s Peter Levine, as he downgraded shares to in line. “Additionally, we detect growing investor frustration around several lingering, unaddressed issues.”
Despite the weaker-than-expected guidance, CrowdStrike topped earnings estimates and posted in-line revenue for the first fiscal quarter. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 73 cents, topping the adjusted per-share earnings of 65 cents expected by LSEG. The company also lifted its full-year earnings outlook, but maintained revenue estimates.
Revenue grew about 20% in the period, according to a release. The company also recorded a net loss of $110.2 million, or 44 cents per share, compared with net income of $42.8 million, or 17 cents per share, a year ago.
Along with the results, CrowdStrike announced a $1 billion share repurchase plan.
The Apple store on 5th Avenue is seen in New York on April 8, 2025.
Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images
Forecasts for Apple and Samsung shipment growth this year were sharply slashed by Counterpoint Research on Wednesday amid uncertainty over U.S. tariff policy.
The research outfit said it had revised down its 2025 global smartphone shipment growth forecast to 1.9% year-on-year from 4.2% previously, citing “renewed uncertainties surrounding U.S. tariffs.”
U.S. President Donald Trump announced “reciprocal tariffs” on imports from countries around the world in April, but exempted smartphones and other electronics from those duties days later.
Still, with tariff uncertainty looming, Counterpoint Research slashed its growth forecast for the world’s two biggest smartphone players. Apple shipments are expected to grow 2.5% year-on-year in 2025, down from a previous forecast of 4%, according to Counterpoint Research. Samsung shipments are now anticipated to see no growth this year, compared with the 1.7% rise that was previously projected.
But it is not just tariffs behind these revised forecasts.
“All eyes are on Apple and Samsung because of their exposure to the US market. Although tariffs have played a role in our forecast revisions, we are also factoring in weakened demand not just in North America but across Europe and parts of Asia,” Counterpoint Research Associate Director Liz Lee said in a press release.
Apple’s downgraded shipment growth will be driven by the iPhone 16 series of devices, as well as by emerging market customers buying more expensive phones, Counterpoint said.
Shipments are not equivalent to sales and represent the number of devices that smartphones vendors send to retailers. They are one measure of the demand that smartphone vendors are expecting.
Apple in particular has come under scrutiny amid talk of U.S. tariffs on China, where the U.S. giant makes 90% of its iPhones. Apple has ramped up its shipments to the U.S. from India, where it has been steadily increasing production of its flagship product.
But this has also drawn the ire of Trump, who last month said that he doesn’t want Apple building iPhones in India, and that they should be manufacturing them in the U.S.
Counterpoint Research flagged Huawei as a bright spot in the sea of lowered forecasts, with the Chinese tech giant expected to notch a 11% year-on-year shipment growth in 2025.
“We are seeing an easing around sourcing bottlenecks for key components at least through the rest of the year, which should help Huawei grab substantial share in the mid-to-lower-end segments at home,” Ethan Qi, associate director at Counterpoint Research, said in a press release.
Electric vehicles outside a Tesla dealership in Melbourne on April 19, 2023.
William West | AFP | Getty Images
Tesla may be facing declining sales in the U.S. and Europe, but it reported a bright spot in Australia — where its electric vehicle sales rebounded to their highest level in nearly 12 months in May.
The American EV maker said Tuesday that its vehicle sales jumped to 3,897, primarily driven by record sales of its recently revamped Model Y compact sport utility vehicle.
Australian sales of the Model Y soared 122.5% year over year, while sales of the company’s Model 3 dropped significantly.
Total deliveries in Australia were up just 9.3% year over year but surged over 675% from April when the company sold only 500 EVs, according to data from the Australian Electric Vehicle Council.
The EV Council is the exclusive source of Tesla and Polestar sales data in Australia after the brands exited the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) last year.
Tesla’s April sales numbers for Australia had been the company’s worst performance of the year there. Despite the May rebound, the EV makers’ total sales in Australia remains down 48.2% year-to-date compared with the same period last year.
“Tesla’s strong sales growth in Australia this May is an encouraging sign, driven almost entirely by strong demand for the updated Model Y. But globally, Tesla is still facing headwinds,” Liz Lee, associate director at technology market research firm Counterpoint Research, told CNBC.
According to Counterpoint EV Sales Tracker, she added, Tesla’s sales were down 13% year on year in the first quarter. “Thus, while the latest Australian rebound is meaningful locally, it does not yet signal a broader global recovery.”
Musk and brand damage
Tesla’s global sales have suffered in recent months in light of increased competition and reputational damage related to CEO Elon Musk’s political rhetoric and activities.
For example, prior to May, Tesla’s Australia sales struggled amid reports of vandalism and protests related to Musk’s work with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and support for far-right parties in Europe.
Tesla reported on Tuesday that its sales in the U.S. were down 11% in May from last year. And European industry groups on Monday noted significantly lower sales for new Tesla vehicles in Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Sweden last month.
But there have been some bright spots. Tesla posted a surprise bounce back in Norway, where the Model Y helped it post 213% more vehicles in May from a year ago. Tesla also said it hit a record breaking 1,545 sales in Turkey last month.
That data comes after Trump hosted a press conference last week, where he announced that Elon Musk would be officially departing from his role within the federal government and White House.
Though Trump added that Musk will stay on as an advisor, in a research note following the announcement, Wedbush’s Dan Ives said he believed that Musk’s days in politics are essentially over after the brand damage suffered by Tesla.
The Tesla bull said Musk’s pivot back to the EV maker “was the best possible news Tesla investors could have heard,” with the rollout of its robotaxi launch expected later this month. Musk has said that Tesla has already been testing driverless Model Ys.
Tight competition
Musk’s return comes at a time when Tesla is also facing much tighter competition, especially from Chinese EV makers.
BYD, for example, has been expanding globally in the face of tight competition in its home market of China, and is increasingly going head to head with Tesla.
In April, China’s BYD outsold Tesla in Europe for the first time, according to JATO Dynamics. The automotive giant recently announced a slew of discounts, and other Chinese automakers are following suit. In March, it was revealed that Tesla fell behind BYD in total annual sales revenue.
And according to a report from JATO Dynamics, BYD sold more pure battery EVs in Europe than Tesla for the first time ever last month in what it called a “watershed moment.”
In May, however, Tesla was able to regain a lead against BYD in vehicle sales in Australia, with 3,897 sales compared with BYD’s 3,225, based on available data.
Its worth noting that Tesla exclusively sells battery electric vehicles, while BYD also sells hybrid cars. Battery EVs run entirely on electricity, while hybrid vehicles combine an electric battery with an internal combustion engine.
According to data that Australia’s FCAI sent to CNBC, sales of hybrid vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles — a type of hybrid that can be charged by being plugged into an external power source — rose by about 6% and 118%, respectively, year on year in May.
“Recent sales data indicate that consumers are increasingly turning to hybrid and plug-in hybrids as many Australians want to reduce their vehicle emissions,” said Tony Weber, chief executive of the FCAI.
He added that hybrids come without the range limitations associated with battery EVs, which is a particular concern in Australia.
Amid increasing global competition and threats from hybrid vehicles, Counterpoint’s Lee said, Tesla should continue to look to high-potential regions like India, Southeast Asia and parts of Latin America.
“These markets are ramping up EV infrastructure and incentives, and Tesla could benefit by moving early, especially if it localizes production and tailors offerings to local preferences,” she said.
Tesla announced on Tuesday that it is leasing a warehouse in Mumbai that is expected to be used for vehicle servicing as part of the company’s long-anticipated India expansion.
Tesla was up about 0.5% in trading on Tuesday and is down about 15% year-to-date.