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> Let's be serious, Reddit making a profit will decrease the likelihood of massive layoffs. I feel like this implies a couple of things: 1) A business is ever

> Let's be serious, Reddit making a profit will decrease the likelihood of massive layoffs. I feel like this implies a couple of things: 1) A business is ever satisfied with their current profit margin. I'm not sure that's the reality. 2) Company profits going one way or the other affect a company's decision to perform layoff rounds. While maybe partially true, I think all the major tech companies performing layoff rounds has proven this to be mostly untrue.

that_guy_iain 3y ago
I would say neither of those are really implied. If you're going to IPO you need to show growth. It's the most important thing. Realistically, making a profit isn't such a big deal if you have a solid plan and are growing. If they can't show that they are able to reign in Reddit users, who are by far the biggest problem for monetization of the platform, then they need to show they're able to get growth other ways. That would be growth in profits.
- starttoaster 3y ago
  > If you're going to IPO you need to show growth. It's the most important thing. I think you're in a chicken and egg situation here. The reason you want to see growth is because as an investor you suppose growth is a good indicator for future profits. So the most important thing is actually still... profits.
  - that_guy_iain 3y ago
    No. Growth is important because it means the value in the future will be bigger.
    - starttoaster 3y ago
      Did we say the same thing? What’s valuable? Income. Nothing besides money really matters to a for-profit business.
      - that_guy_iain 3y ago
        Yet some how for-profit companies become more valuable when they just grow their user base. You seem to be applying basic logic to company valuations while at the same time you probably also understand the finical market is completely fucked up. Amazon lost money for god only knows how long and was extremely valuable and sought after investment for nearly the entire time. Why? Because growth. They don't care what kind of growth they just want growth. While a sane person would say the growth should be in money so they could eventually be profitable, that's not how the markets work. So they can either show growth in the fact they're growing their customer base to include API customers and revenue streams. Or they can show growth in profits.
        starttoaster 3y ago
        Right, and what’s the end goal of growth? Why do companies and shareholders want to see growth? What does growth of API consumers potentially lead to? Let me make it simpler: why did Reddit start charging money for their API?

that_guy_iain 3y ago

I would say neither of those are really implied. If you're going to IPO you need to show growth. It's the most important thing. Realistically, making a profit isn't such a big deal if you have a solid plan and are growing. If they can't show that they are able to reign in Reddit users, who are by far the biggest problem for monetization of the platform, then they need to show they're able to get growth other ways. That would be growth in profits.

starttoaster 3y ago
> If you're going to IPO you need to show growth. It's the most important thing. I think you're in a chicken and egg situation here. The reason you want to see growth is because as an investor you suppose growth is a good indicator for future profits. So the most important thing is actually still... profits.
- that_guy_iain 3y ago
  No. Growth is important because it means the value in the future will be bigger.
  - starttoaster 3y ago
    Did we say the same thing? What’s valuable? Income. Nothing besides money really matters to a for-profit business.
    - that_guy_iain 3y ago
      Yet some how for-profit companies become more valuable when they just grow their user base. You seem to be applying basic logic to company valuations while at the same time you probably also understand the finical market is completely fucked up. Amazon lost money for god only knows how long and was extremely valuable and sought after investment for nearly the entire time. Why? Because growth. They don't care what kind of growth they just want growth. While a sane person would say the growth should be in money so they could eventually be profitable, that's not how the markets work. So they can either show growth in the fact they're growing their customer base to include API customers and revenue streams. Or they can show growth in profits.
      - starttoaster 3y ago
        Right, and what’s the end goal of growth? Why do companies and shareholders want to see growth? What does growth of API consumers potentially lead to? Let me make it simpler: why did Reddit start charging money for their API?