Reddit is one of the most popular internet sites in the world, with hundreds of millions of users and over 1.2 billion collective monthly active visits. It is a social news aggregator that hosts user-generated content including news, images, links, and discussions, on a variety of topics ranging from world news to popular culture, and more.

Despite its popularity, many people are still confused about who owns Reddit and who were the founders behind the site. Let’s dive in and answer these questions once and for all.

Who Owns Reddit?

Reddit was founded in 2005 by two college friends, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, who were both graduate students at the University of Virginia. However, the ownership of Reddit has changed hands several times since its inception.

In 2006, Reddit was acquired by media giant Condé Nast, the parent company of popular magazines such as Vogue, Wired, and GQ. It was a rare acquisition for Condé Nast, as Reddit was still relatively small at the time. The media company saw potential in the site’s ability to draw millions of users through its user-generated content.

In 2011, Condé Nast spun off Reddit as an independent company. The reason behind this move was to give Reddit more autonomy and allow it to operate more flexibly while focusing on continued growth.

Finally, in 2019, Reddit raised $300 million in funding in a Series D round, led by Chinese tech giant Tencent. This investment made Tencent the controlling shareholder of Reddit, with a 10% stake in the company.

Who Were the Founders?

As mentioned earlier, Reddit was founded by two college friends, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian.

Huffman studied computer science at the University of Virginia, where he met Ohanian, who was studying history and business. The two started to work on a web-based news aggregator which they named “my mobile menu,” which later became the initial idea behind Reddit.

They launched Reddit in June 2005 after receiving funding from Y Combinator, a start-up accelerator that provides seed funding, mentorship, and resources to early-stage companies.

Huffman and Ohanian continued to run the business until 2009 when they decided to leave to pursue other ventures. Huffman went on to co-found the online marketplace Hipmunk, while Ohanian became a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, co-founding social enterprise platform Breadpig and investing in several other start-ups.