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The
contract with Alphabet-owned Google is worth about $60 million
per year, according to one of the sources.
The deal underscores how Reddit, which is preparing for a
high-profile stock market launch, is seeking to generate new
revenue amid fierce competition for advertising dollars from the
likes of TikTok and Meta Platform's Facebook.
The sources were not authorized to speak to media and declined
to be identified.
Reddit and Google declined to comment.
Bloomberg previously reported Reddit's content deal without
naming the buyer.
Last year, Reddit said it would charge companies for access to
its application programming interface (API) - the means by which
it distributes its content. The agreement with Google is its
first reported deal with a big AI company.
San Francisco-based Reddit, which has been looking at a stock
float for more than three years, is preparing to make its
initial public offering filing this week, which would detail its
financials for the first time to potential IPO investors.
The filing could be available as early as Thursday, two of the
sources said.
The company, which was valued at about $10 billion in a funding
round in 2021, is seeking to sell about 10% of its shares in the
offering, Reuters has previously reported.
Reddit's stock market launch would mark the first IPO of a major
social media company since Pinterest floated its shares in 2019.
Makers of AI models have been busy clinching deals with content
owners in recent months, aiming to diversify their training data
beyond large scrapes of the internet. That practice is rife with
potential copyright issues as many content creators have alleged
that their content was used without permission.
Founded in 2005 by web developer Steve Huffman and entrepreneur
Alexis Ohanian, Reddit is known for its manifold niche
discussion groups, some of which boast tens of millions of
members.
(Reporting by Anna Tong in San Francisco, Echo Wang in New York
and Martin Coulter in London; Additional reporting by Jeffrey
Dastin; Editing by Anirban Sen, Krystal Hu and Edwina Gibbs)
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