Reddit says it plans to host more of users' content on its Web site, eliminating the need for users to publish their content elsewhere and then share links to it on the forum-based social network.
The Web site began rolling out in-house image hosting features last week.
Traditionally focused on text-based discussion, Reddit is now following steps taken by other social networks such as Facebook and Twitter by adding multimedia hosting to its functionality portfolio.
Hosting its own multimedia is likely to boost Reddit's profits by increasing traffic to the site and time spent (looking at multimedia) on its pages, raising ad impression numbers.
The move could also boost use of the site by making it easier to share media on Reddit, and help retain users once they visit its pages. "Every time we send a user away [from Reddit to look at multimedia elsewhere] there's a chance we won't get them back," CEO Steve Huffman told BBC News.
The average Reddit visitor spends 15 minutes a day on the site, whereas this number is closer to 20 minutes for Facebook, according to Alexa.com.
Additionally, Reddit's new features will aim to prioritise original content producers in its user base, said Huffman.
In-house content hosting will also make it easier for the site to moderate inappropriate content, for example abuse, bullying, spam, or copyright infringements, Slate quotes Reddit founding engineer Chris Slowe, who suggests that the process of reporting abusive content is complicated by third-party hosts.
When Reddit disbanded a number of notoriously racist communities, or subreddits, from its site in 2015, Huffman (who goes by "spez" on Reddit) stated that the company did so out of convenience for its moderators, rather than due to a stance against offensive content.
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