Social news aggregator Reddit is set to conduct a major redesign that will change the way its homepage looks. This upcoming change was disclosed by its CEO Steve Huffman, following a venture funding round through which the company raised a total of $200 million. The firm will use the funding to accelerate the development of its new homepage design, i.e. revamp its code and introduce native support for video content.
Details about the new design have yet to be unveiled, though it seems like Reddit is working on a timeline format as the new method for displaying its content. It also appears that the planned redesign will divide the content feed into cards in an effort to make the homepage more appealing to users. Huffman pointed out that the company wants to beef up the visual appearance of Reddit in an effort to provide users with a better overall experience, implying how the redesign will be rather significant in scope. The main focus of the initiative is still set to be placed on the desktop version of Reddit, the company’s CEO said. In addition to introducing a new design, the firm will also use the new funding to speed up its effort to add video content support to the site, meaning users will have the ability to upload videos directly to Reddit. As a part of that effort, Reddit is planning to expand its workforce to around 300 full-time employees by the end of this year, according to Huffman. It remains unclear whether Reddit plans to use video content to show ads on the platform, though that seems like a plausible scenario given recent digital advertising practices.
As of this writing, it is still not clear when Reddit will roll out the new design to its homepage. It also remains to be seen whether the company plans to treat its official mobile app with a similar redesign. Being one of the most popular platforms that emerged as part of the Web 2.0 evolution, Reddit is currently under a lot of scrutiny regarding its ability to monetize its massive user base without hurting its retention rates.