The Future

Reddit wants to look more like Facebook

After raising $200 million in venture funding, Reddit is trying out a new design.

The Future

$1.8B
Reddit’s valuation after raising an additional $200 million in venture funding.
The Future

Reddit wants to look more like Facebook

After raising $200 million in venture funding, Reddit is trying out a new design.

Reddit has raised $200 million in new venture funding, most of which will be used to completely redesign reddit.com, Recode reports. “Reddit feels old. We don’t want to be associated with old,” the company’s co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman told the site. “We want Reddit to be more visually appealing, so when new users come to reddit they know exactly what it’s for.”

The company is re-writing all of Reddit’s code as part of the redesign, focusing its efforts on Reddit’s desktop homepage, since only 20 percent of the website’s users come from mobile. Reddit is beefing up its staff to help with the redesign: The company has hired nearly 100 employees since the beginning of this year and plans on finishing 2017 with approximately 300 full-time staffers, Huffman said. Recode reports that the new, improved Reddit homepage will look similar to Facebook or Twitter feeds, and that the company also plans on ramping up video efforts. There’s no say on whether the Facebook-esque redesign will make the website less of a hotbed for alt-right grossness, though.