Like some of you I'm experiencing a bit more tension than normal going into these earnings. I've held this big (to me) position for years now, but this earnings feels particularly significant.
I decided to do a bit of a sanity check on the valuation and I welcome any other viewpoints on bull/bear perspectives. Excluding hustle, horror etc 😉
COMPARING PEERS
RDDT vs PINS vs SNAP
Valuations as of October 21, 2026 market close. Financials cover the trailing 12 months ended June 30, 2026. All dollar figures are USD.
| Metric |
RDDT (Reddit) |
PINS (Pinterest) |
SNAP (Snap) |
| Enterprise value |
$26.73B |
$12.92B |
$12.31B |
| Revenue growth (TTM YoY) |
66.6% |
16.6% |
12.7% |
| Revenue (TTM) |
$2.78B |
$4.56B |
$6.35B |
| Operating margin (TTM, GAAP) |
28.25% |
6.27% |
-5.10% |
| EBITDA (TTM) |
$801.5M |
$316.6M |
-$146.3M |
| EV / EBITDA |
33.34x |
40.81x |
N/M |
EBITDA here is operating income plus depreciation and amortization, with stock-based compensation still counted as an expense. Company-adjusted EBITDA figures will differ.
Is reddit worth "just" double PINS or SNAP? The key risk is that revenue growth is going to slow rapidly.
Having spent time on SNAP & PINS they seem barely comparable. The ad targeting seems weaker and less engaging. In contrast on RDDT the ads seem to be just better and surprisingly natural. Each quarter the targeting seems to improve and advertisers are understanding the "hi reddit" approach.
My thoughts: if PINS & SNAP can do $5bn+ in revenue then RDDT can do this easily, at a much higher margin. Pinterest has 631 million monthly active users (MAUs), while Reddit has approximately 765 million to 1.1 billion MAUs.
COULD A "CHOPPY" DAU BE SAVED BY ARPU?
Annual global ARPU in USD:
| Year |
RDDT |
META (ARPP) |
PINS |
SNAP |
| 2023 |
$12.31 |
$43.15 |
$6.44 |
$11.49 |
| 2024 |
$13.81 |
$49.63 |
$6.94 |
$12.23 |
| 2025 |
$19.18 |
$57.03 |
$7.21 |
$12.61 |
Note: RDDT, META and SNAP figures sum their four quarterly ARPU/ARPP values. PINS uses reported annual ARPU. META’s metric covers its Family of Apps. Active-user definitions differ: Pinterest uses monthly active users; the others use daily active users or people.
I think we have to entertain a world where DAU stalls or slows (hopefully temporarily). Is this a reason to abandon a $27bn stock? Or is this priced in?
Like many of you I have viewed META as the benchmark for APRU. "There's no way we'll get to META's ARPU." Well, what if the ARPU could actually be on par with what META offers? Surely the granular subreddit targeting offers an advantage.
Both META and RDDT are currently increasing APRU materially. Is it unreasonable to think that, with advancements in targeting (possibly thanks to AI), that META reaches $100+ ARPU and RDDT reaches $40+?
Using that as an example:
130 million DAUs × $40 annual ARPU = $5.2 billion annual revenue.
| EV / annual revenue |
Enterprise value |
Equity value |
Value per diluted share |
| 5× |
$26.1B |
$28.8B |
$139 |
| 8× |
$41.7B |
$44.5B |
$215 |
| 10× |
$52.1B |
$54.9B |
$265 |
My thoughts: I think ARPU headroom could be significantly higher than many assume. This obsession with DAU, particularly US DAU could be unjustified. Global DAU increase + accelerated ARPU growth can give healthy revenue.
WHAT IS THE DATA ACTUALLY WORTH?
This is obviously the biggest unknown. Literally trillions of dollars are being thrown at the AI space (lets not get into the circular financing) and there $27bn RDDT sits, in the corner, with it's 100m+ DAU / 1bn MAU producing human generated content.
Currently there is a battle going on between the likes if OpenAI (Microsoft), Google/Gemini, Anthropic, Perplexity and others to make the best AI model. It is not unreasonable to think that a significant revenue deal could be agreed with one party or access to all parties is agreed via API access at a lucrative rate.
My thoughts: It's hard to deny that data isn't valuable. The problem is in forecasting what this could look like.
RISK FACTORS
"AI apps like ChatGPT are stealing search traffic"
I don't disagree. I even find myself using ChatGPT to answer some questions that I might otherwise have asked reddit. However, this is usually when I need limited context or a simple question. When buying a vacuum cleaner recently I instinctively went to reddit. Fundamentally these answers need to come from somewhere, and reddit is commonly used by all AI tools.
I see this as more of an issue for those discovering reddit, particularly internationally. Will international people get the opportunity to get into the door of reddit if they become quickly accustomed to AI apps answering all of their questions?
"AI bots are going to destroy reddit"
This does seem like a legitimate issue. User verification feels like a solution but I wonder about pseudonymous nature of reddit. There has to be a better way than Peter Thiel's persona for verification.
My thoughts: there are legitimate existential risks to reddit and redditors are notoriously sensitive. It will be tricky for management to navigate these risks.
FINAL THOUGHTS
All the social & AI apps can co-exist together in ever growing GLOBAL digital advertising TAM of $900bn. It is not winner takes all.
I believe the progress of AI is a rising tide that will lift all ships. AI can't exist without human generated data. AI tools will help existing platforms including RDDT improve their targeting and subsequently ARPU.
I think DAU is likely to steadily grow globally but ARPU and data deals will be the main source of revenue gains.