March 20 (Reuters) - Social media platform Reddit

priced its initial public offering at the top of its

targeted range of $31 to $34 per share on Wednesday, raising

$748 million and giving the ailing technology IPO market a

much-needed boost.

Reddit and its existing shareholders sold 22 million shares

at $34 a share, giving Reddit a valuation of about $6.4 billion.

To tap retail investors, Reddit reserved 8% of the total

shares on offer for eligible users and moderators on its

platform, certain board members and friends and family members

of its employees and directors.

Excluding the shares sold by existing shareholders, Reddit

raised gross proceeds of $519.4 million from its IPO. Reuters

reported earlier on Thursday that Reddit and its bankers were

guiding they could price the IPO at the top of the indicated

range or above.

The top-end pricing is a vindication of the company's

decision to lower its valuation expectations, after it was

valued at $10 billion in a private fundraising round in 2021.

The successful offerings of Reddit and Astera Labs

could boost the lackluster tech IPO market after two years of

largely subdued activity. Earlier this year, the stock market

launches of other big names including KKR-backed BrightSpring

and sportswear brand Amer Sports received a lukewarm reception

from investors.

LOYAL USER BASE

Despite the loyalty of many of its users, Reddit has lost

money every year since its launch in 2005 and has lagged the

commercial success of contemporaries such as Meta Platforms'

Facebook and Twitter, now known as X.

The focus of many Reddit users on niche subjects and the

platform's somewhat loose approach to content moderation has

been a sticking point with some advertisers.

As it looks for new revenue sources, Reddit in February

unveiled a $66 million contract to provide artificial

intelligence training data to Alphabet's Google.

Reddit, however, said last week the U.S. Federal Trade

Commission was conducting an inquiry focused on the company's

sale, licensing, and sharing of user-generated content with

third parties to train AI models.

Reddit relies on volunteers from its user base to moderate

the content posted on its forums.

Moderators can decide to withdraw from their duty at any

time, as in 2023, when several quit in protest over Reddit's

decision to charge third-party app developers for access to its

data.

Reddit's 100,000 online forums, dubbed "subreddits," allow

conversations on topics ranging from "the sublime to the

ridiculous, the trivial to the existential, the comic to the

serious," according to co-founder and chief executive Steve

Huffman.

The company's influential communities are best known for the

"meme-stock" saga of 2021 when several retail investors

collaborated on Reddit's "wallstreetbets" forum to buy shares of

highly shorted companies such as video game retailer GameStop

.

Reddit had an average of 73.1 million daily active "uniques"

- users who use its platform at least once a day - in the three

months ended Dec. 31, 2023, according to a regulatory filing.

Reddit's shares are expected to start trading on the New

York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the ticker 'RDDT'.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank

of America are the lead underwriters for Reddit's offering.

Morgan Stanley also won the lead role on Astera's IPO.