Reddit hires Google vet to guide ad product development post IPO

• Reddit has appointed Google veteran Jyoti Vaidee to the newly created role of vice chairman of ads product, effective immediately, according to an organization blog post.
• Vaidee spent over a decade on Google’s monetization strategy, most recently leading product for the corporate’s Display Ads unit. At Reddit, the manager is tasked with guiding ads product strategy, execution and management.
• Vaidee will report to Roelof van Zwol, who’s taking up the expanded role of vice chairman of ads product and engineering. Her hire sees the departure of Shariq Rizvi, previously Reddit’s executive vice chairman of ads monetization and a key architect of its current ad infrastructure. 

Vaidee brings a wealth of ad product experience to Reddit, which is quickly scaling its global monetization efforts following an initial public offering in March. The hire demonstrates that Reddit is looking to established heavy hitters like Google because it maps out a path to becoming a major player within the competitive digital promoting sector.

In her eleven-plus years at Google, Vaidee oversaw the discharge of impactful offerings, comparable to Dynamic Product Ads. She also helped drive product expansion across Google Shopping ads and YouTube, and previously worked on widely used consumer platforms including Microsoft’s Outlook email client and Xbox video game console. 

The executive is predicted to keep Reddit on the vanguard of ad innovation, taking up the mantle from Rizvi, who’s leaving the corporate after five years heading up the ads product organization. Rizvi struck necessary deals, comparable to Reddit’s 2022 acquisition of the audience insights firm Spiketrap, together with rolling out what have change into staple ad products for the location. Reddit in April debuted a shopping ads format in beta called Dynamic Product Ads, its first launch post-IPO. Rizvi’s position might be sunset with the transition. 

Reddit’s first quarter as a public company impressed investors, with ad revenue up 39% year-over-year to $222.7 million. The IPO arrived because the digital ad market rebounded following a tumultuous 2022-23. 

“This is an exciting time for Reddit as a newly public company with a lot untapped potential. The platform is leading the best way in creating community and fostering authentic connections with very real business results,” Vaidee said in a press statement. “I’m looking forward to helping advance Reddit’s ads business and driving increased value for users and advertisers alike.”

Over 82 million users visit Reddit day by day to browse forum communities, referred to as subreddits, dedicated to a wide selection of interests and fandoms. The site currently sits at an interesting place within the digital ecosystem. Many consumers now include Reddit of their Google queries to surface more relevant, useful results. Reddit and Google in February struck a reported $60 million content licensing deal to help higher train the latter’s artificial intelligence models.