This Site Was Known As the Internet’s ‘Odd Duck’ a Decade Ago. Now It’s Aiming for 1 Billion Users.

Reddit used to be a platform on the fringes of the Internet, a place users went to for niche jokes and brutally honest advice. Now the platform is trying to appeal to a wider audience and amass one billion users, while insisting that its core advantage is still human conversation. 

Reddit COO Jen Wong acknowledged that for years, Reddit lived in a strange middle ground. It was too messy to be polished, too social to be just a forum and too community-driven to behave like a standard media company. Those factors contributed to its reputation as an Internet outsider. 

“We were an odd duck a decade ago, but things have changed,” Wong recently told Fortune. She added that in an AI-driven world, “the most radical thing a platform can offer is people talking to people.”

That idea is now the center of Reddit’s brand. Instead of selling itself as a feed of content, it is leaning into real voices, practical advice and communities built around shared interests. The result is a platform that feels more human than the rest of the web. 

Wong said Reddit is still early in its monetization and product journeys, and the platform’s ambitions are sky-high. “The goal is one billion users,” she said. According to Statista, Reddit had 126.8 million daily active users during the first quarter of 2026.  

Reddit’s strength is its structure, according to Wong. Users organize themselves into communities known as subreddits, vote posts up or down and shape the feel of each community through volunteer moderation.

Wong said that the platform’s value is its authenticity. “It’s really important that the ideas on Reddit come from real people,” Wong explained. “That is everything.” Posts and advice from “real people” shape Reddit’s value as a platform; users flock to the site for honest answers on products, careers, health, hobbies and daily life. 

Building a business

Reddit was slow to monetize, but that is quickly changing. The company went public in 2024 and shortly after, turned a profit for the first time. Now its revenue comes mainly from ads; in its most recent quarterly results, advertising comprised 94% of revenue. 

Since going public, Reddit has been careful not to disrupt the user experience. “Our users are famously skeptical of marketing, and communities are quick to call out anything that feels forced,” Wong said. 

Reddit’s focus on community-driven answers has allowed the platform to become a preferred destination for people searching for information. Its archive offers authentic responses instead of generic answers. 

That same archive has become commercially valuable to AI companies. Reddit signed licensing agreements with Google and OpenAI in 2024 that turn its conversations into a revenue stream.

“There is, quite literally, something for everyone,” Wong said of the platform. 

Reddit used to be a platform on the fringes of the Internet, a place users went to for niche jokes and brutally honest advice. Now the platform is trying to appeal to a wider audience and amass one billion users, while insisting that its core advantage is still human conversation. 

Reddit COO Jen Wong acknowledged that for years, Reddit lived in a strange middle ground. It was too messy to be polished, too social to be just a forum and too community-driven to behave like a standard media company. Those factors contributed to its reputation as an Internet outsider. 

“We were an odd duck a decade ago, but things have changed,” Wong recently told Fortune. She added that in an AI-driven world, “the most radical thing a platform can offer is people talking to people.”