That makes sense now, as a scheme to increase valuation before the IPO[1]. But I wouldn't say that that has been their strategy all along. They're still not profitable after all these years, and the relationship with the community has been amicable, for the most part. The API has been free since the beginning, after all, which has allowed the site to prosper.
Though it does feel like they're ready to sacrifice the community for short-term revenue, and that their mid-term plan might just be to cash out once the ship starts sinking.
> They're still not profitable after all these years, and the relationship with the community has been amicable, for the most part.
IANAEconomist, but I think the current go-to explanation is that companies can remain unprofitable indefinitely, focusing on increasing growth and stacking more and more loans / investment rounds - as long as interest rates are near-zero, making money cheap. Now that they've gone up, there's enormous pressure to unwind the stack, and such companies need to start making money right frakkin now, hence the sudden squeeze[0] done by Reddit (and other SaaS businesses).
--
[0] - The so-called "enshittification". I dislike the term, but it was coined to describe exactly this direction of company evolution.
Though it does feel like they're ready to sacrifice the community for short-term revenue, and that their mid-term plan might just be to cash out once the ship starts sinking.
[1]: https://www.reuters.com/technology/reddit-aims-ipo-second-ha...