On the first day of trading, shares of social networking site Reddit closed 48% higher on the New York Stock Exchange.

With its shares trading at $50.44 at the end of Thursday’s trading, the company was valued at almost $9 billion (£7.1 billion).

This was among the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) ever made by a social media company.

Since its founding about 20 years ago, Reddit has grown to become one of the most well-known websites worldwide.

Users can talk about subjects that interest them in this online forum. The firm claims that as of the end of December 2023, it had over 73 million users.

Reddit is a free website to read, post, and comment on; users do not need to pay to use it.

It failed to make money for 20 years, which may have led some to wonder why Reddit is worth billions of dollars.

It has made a few attempts, and in 2017, it made a big graphic update to make the website more ad-friendly.

However, Reddit’s path to financial success, which is based on AI models, appears to be coming to an end.

In order to make its AI more human-like, Reddit has announced it has agreed to licensing arrangements worth more than $200 million over the next two to three years. It is estimated that Reddit paid Google $60 million for the right to scan nearly two decades of discussions.

Reddit said in February that it lost $90.8 million in 2023, indicating that revenue from artificial intelligence (AI) companies could turn the network into a profit.