The investment from Tencent is part of $300 million investment package about to come Reddit’s way, as part of a Series D fundraising round. Fifty percent of this is Tencent alone, according to Gizmodo. Depending on how much the money the funding round eventually makes, this could propel Reddit to be valued at over $3 billion.
Tecent is a Chinese multinational investment holding conglomerate founded in 1998, whose various subsidiaries specialize in different Internet-related services and products such as entertainment, artificial intelligence and technology. The firm operates both in China and globally. The company is the first ever Asian technology company to pass a $500 billion market value. Tencent, headed by Pony Ma Huateng, has seen its stock price soar nearly 120 per cent so far in 2019.
According to Fortune, the union between Tencent and Reddit has created a great deal of confusion, especially given that Reddit is currently blocked in China, and has been for over three-months. However, this is not the first time Tencent has invested in U.S.-connected social media. Tencent also owns a stake in Snapchat, which is also a service that is blocked by China’s Great Firewall.
The investment round signals Reddit’s continued strength. The social media site has over 330 million monthly active users and it receives about 18 billion page views per month. The user engagement increased by 22 percent in 2018 and the site exceed $100 million in revenue during the same year.
