Steve Huffman Spez’s Net Worth Forbes – What The Reddit CEO Did and Why People Hate Him

How much is Steve Huffman’s net worth? Spez is the co-founder and CEO of Reddit. The platform’s users are hating on him amidst massive protests against new policy changes.

For years, Reddit has been a platform where folks can discuss fan theories, break down leaks, and even argue about who the a-hole is in a given situation. While it, like any online platform, has been home to toxicity and misinformation in the past, people have continued to use Reddit and have even found ways to fine-tune the experience to be more user-friendly than its own developers have made it.

Unfortunately, the team behind Reddit has been in hot water throughout 2023.

The backlash against Reddit has gotten so bad that users have been voicing their outrage over it, specifically aiming it toward Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman, commonly known by his platform username Spez. Throughout his history at the company, he’s invited plenty of controversy already. Now, he’s essentially become the face of massive policy changes for the platform that have received near-universal criticism. Why do people hate Spez so much? He’s continued to stoke the flames in 2023.

Why do people hate Spez?

Spez has earned vitriol on the internet on multiple occasions. Most recently, he’s been at the forefront of major controversial changes to Reddit’s API (application programming interface) policies.

In April 2023, Reddit announced that it was planning to roll out paid access to API, a function that has been free on the platform since 2008. The new policy has all but forced third-party applications on Reddit to shut down. Many users and moderators who use these third-party apps to improve their overall user experience on Reddit have expressed outrage over the new charges.

Users subsequently staged a protest in mid-June by slowing or ceasing all activity on the platform in a site-wide boycott.

Spez attempted to clear the air in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) conference that same month, but was reportedly met with “seemingly universal anger,” according to The Verge. During this conference, he doubled down on the site’s API charges, which certainly didn’t help things.

People have since continued to voice their disdain. In July, Reddit launched its r/Place collaborative art project in which users can drop a pixel of color on a canvas in order to generate images. As more and more pixels were added, several spaces began to spell out messages that read “f–k spez”. Even as more pixels were added and more images were created, this particular image is prominent all over the canvas.

This is far from the first time Spez has sparked controversy. In 2016, Spez was outed for modifying posts in a subreddit dedicated to Donald Trump. Later in 2020, former Reddit CEO Ellen Pao accused him and other administrators of condoning racism and “[monetizing] white supremacy” on the platform.

With Spez making no moves to address user concerns with regard to the API charges, he will likely continue to fall out of favor among Reddit users.

Profile Summary

What is Steve Huffman Spez’s net worth and why is he so rich?

For years of being an American web developer and entrepreneur, Steve Huffman, also known by his Reddit username Spez, has accumulated an estimated current net worth of $10 million.

As an executive at Reddit, the tech guru earns a base salary and a bonus of $243,371, or $117 per hour. 

He is the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, a social news and discussion website, which ranks in the top 20 websites in the world. He’s been active in the role ever since and even earned a spot in Fortune magazine‘s “40 Under 40” column.

Spez co-founded Reddit in 2005 alongside fellow programmer Aaron Swartz and entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian.

Huffman and his co-founder, Alexis Ohanian, met at the University of Virginia. They were roommates when they conceived of the idea that would eventually become Reddit. Reddit launched in June 2005 with funding from tech incubator Y Combinator. At the time Huffman hand-picked the front page’s content.

On October 31, 2006, Alexis and Steve sold Reddit to Conde Nast for a reported $10 – $20 million. Huffman stayed on as CEO until 2009. He returned as CEO in 2015.

In the years he spent away from Reddit, Huffman co-founded a travel website called Hipmunk. Hipmunk’s mission was to supply travelers with real-time information and data organized in multiple ways. The platform shut down in 2020.

Huffman has expressed regret for selling Reddit so early. He has also admitted he never could have imagined Reddit becoming as big as it is today.