Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reddit needs help

blog.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 258 posts

Re: Reddit needs help

#2

Post by swilliams »

It's good that they're seeking ways to increase revenue, but this comes across as nearly cyber-begging.

"...we can right now only offer you our undying gratitude and an optional trophy on your userpage."

Yikes. What else could reddit offer for subscribers other than a png?

Can reddit or similar platforms find a good way to generate revenue? Obviously ads and merchandise (t-shirts, etc) aren't doing it alone here.

Re: Reddit needs help

#4

Post by gonehome »

swilliams wrote: post #2

It's good that they're seeking ways to increase revenue, but this comes across as nearly cyber-begging. "...we can right now only offer you our undying gratitude and an optional trophy on your userpage." Yikes. What else could reddit offer for subscribers other than a png? Can reddit or similar platforms find a good way to generate revenue? Obviously ads and merchandise (t-shirts, etc) aren't doing it alone here.

I think they are generating revenue, just not enough for Conde Nast to increase their budget. This seems like a way for them to get extra money that they can personally use toward the site.

Re: Reddit needs help

#5

Post by jessriedel »

A user's willingness to pay is going to be based either off of charity (a la NPR) or as an exchange for a service/good. You can't have both, simply due to human nature.

Re: Reddit needs help

#9

Post by clistctrl »

Let me pay $10, and all I ask for in return is site stability and maybe a sweet icon next to my name when I comment. Honestly I bet you could get 100k subscribers within a week. People are hopelessly addicted to these aggregation services, and if subscribing gives us the self assurance that their be around for us to continue enjoying them the fee is worth it. I don't expect you to remove the sponsored ads either (actually i'd be a bit disappointed if you did... its nice seeing ads for small businesses I haven't heard about)

A few downsides, once you start charging me I'm going to gain some expectations. Downtime is going to be harder to excuse then it was before is just one example.

Post reply on HN