As Reddit securities began trading, one analyst says the company won’t be able to please everyone. 

Michael James, senior vice president of equity trading at Wedbush Securities, said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Thursday that some are worried Reddit’s IPO could alienate users in favour of shareholders and profit. 

“When you look at the number of users on Reddit, just by the law of large numbers, you’re not going to make everybody happy no matter what,” he said. “When you have six million users, not everybody’s going to love (the decisions) that are made by the company.”

Shares for the San Francisco-based social media company began trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday, opening at US$47 per share, about 38 per cent higher than its $34 IPO price.

James said Reddit’s move to be publicly traded reflects not only a bullish appetite in the overall market but a healthy IPO market as well. The current frenzy over AI is justified because companies like Nvidia are profitable. Reddit is not, he said.

“It’s got an $8 billion market cap. Where the stock isn’t that indicative of a bubble, I would say it’s more indicative of the risk appetite for equities right now,” he said. 

When it comes to potential market drags, James said they are all simply being “shrugged off.”

“(They’re) having no effect on the overall market and the continued bullish tone. Reddit’s just another example of that today,” he said.

With files from Bloomberg News.