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Reddit needs help

blog.reddit.com

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Re: Reddit needs help

#51

Post by run4yourlives »

maurycy wrote: post #27
run4yourlives wrote: post #26

I don't want to kick someone when they are down, but this just stood out to me: And reddit's revenue isn't great. The good news is, our traffic continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Talk about doing it wrong. When you have growth but no revenue, it's probably because you aren't asking your users to pay. That should be every website's first option - ask people to pay for the service they receive. Paying users are gre…

Not quite. Sometimes, free users increase the network effect; also, sometimes the longer they use the system, more likely they are to pay for it eventually.

1. I'll concede the network effect, but if you are having trouble supporting - for example - 10,000 users with a .5% conversion rate, 100,000 with that same conversion rate isn't going to help you. You need to change the ratio, not just grow.

2. You'll need to find me some stats that back up the point that there is a relationship between the length of time a user is on a site and their commitment to purchase. If this is true, all websites should see increased per capita conversion rates over time. I don't think this is the case, but please prove me wrong.

Re: Reddit needs help

#52

Post by axod »

run4yourlives wrote: post #26

I don't want to kick someone when they are down, but this just stood out to me: And reddit's revenue isn't great. The good news is, our traffic continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Talk about doing it wrong. When you have growth but no revenue, it's probably because you aren't asking your users to pay. That should be every website's first option - ask people to pay for the service they receive. Paying users are gre…

Paying users aren't the only way. Reddit could have started at the outset with adverts. They could have made that decision early on that they were going to generate revenue. But they didn't - which is why Reddit has attracted the sort of demographic that don't click on ads.

Re: Reddit needs help

#53

Post by stevelosh »

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.

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

Isn't their code base open source? More money may mean less time spent fixing slowdowns and more time spent on the core code. If you're using their code for something of your own that could be one motivating factor.

Re: Reddit needs help

#54

Post by run4yourlives »

davidw wrote: post #32

I don't know, I think paying money for nothing in return to a big corporation is a little bit insane, actually. $5, in the right hands, would go a long ways in Africa or various other places in the world where people have real, urgent needs. Or if that's not your thing, there are all kinds of real charities out there. Hell, if you want, you can send the money my way and I'll put it in my daughter's college education/…

Unfortunately there is a basic economics lesson here: Value is in the eyes of the consumer.

The fact of the matter is that people do in fact value giving $5 to a giant corporation for leisure activities more than they do giving that same exact $5 to some person in need in Africa.

(That isn't to suggest they aren't giving a different $5 to Africa, just that they are rich enough to do both.)

Re: Reddit needs help

#55

Post by zach »

I have to say, this looks bad for the whole "users first, revenue later" mantra. Now, admittedly, the founders got paid on the flip. But there are users, and now it's later, so... where is the revenue?

I heard this moment described as the "where is the land" moment. The crew has been sailing the ocean for a long time and they're running on slim hope. They grumble, then complain, and finally they confront the captain and say, "You promised us land. Where is the land?!"

This doesn't look like a good resolution to the "where is the land" moment. Why decide to plead for cash? It's the business model of last resort.

So yeah, this is definitely a cry for help. Unfortunately, it's one that reminds me a lot of the drowning article. I think this is Reddit grabbing its users and trying to climb on top of them.

Re: Reddit needs help

#56

Post by lukev »

davidw wrote: post #32

I don't know, I think paying money for nothing in return to a big corporation is a little bit insane, actually. $5, in the right hands, would go a long ways in Africa or various other places in the world where people have real, urgent needs. Or if that's not your thing, there are all kinds of real charities out there. Hell, if you want, you can send the money my way and I'll put it in my daughter's college education/…

My initial reaction was to agree with you, and certainly you have a good point about it possibly being more ethical to give money you don't need to charities.

But at the same time, Reddit is much closer to home for redditors. If I spend 30-60 minutes a day on Reddit, and like it, it has a very measurable impact on my life. It is in my own interest to keep it running. Whether it is a large corporation or not is beside the point. And by donating, I can become a "part" of the site, I can invest in its future (including upcoming premium features, if all goes well). In some sense, donating to Reddit is extremely capitalistic.

Contrast with charity, which is non-capitalistic and much "better" in the sense of ultimate moral good, but where I'm never likely to see my $5 again or even hear how it was used.

Re: Reddit needs help

#57

Post by _pi »

axod wrote: post #47

lipstick.com was always going to be far easier to monetize. (The site Reddit made for Conde Naste before they bought Reddit). Celebs? Gossip? Woman demographics? non techie? Jeez you'd have been able to make millions... http://web.archive.org/web/20071025012630/http://lipstick.co... The site seems to have been killed and not used since 2007. Stupidly bad decision IMHO. Even if you stuck up a crappy website on that do…

To be honest Reddit isn't that techie anymore, reddit's demographics have shifted to teenage and young adult males and girls who are "geeks". Not only that but the default reddits are becoming a cesspool like Digg. Essentially the community had so much Digg hate in the beginning but at least Kevin Rose kept his site running while the demographics shifted.

Re: Reddit needs help

#58

Post by zyb09 »

davidw wrote: post #32

I don't know, I think paying money for nothing in return to a big corporation is a little bit insane, actually. $5, in the right hands, would go a long ways in Africa or various other places in the world where people have real, urgent needs. Or if that's not your thing, there are all kinds of real charities out there. Hell, if you want, you can send the money my way and I'll put it in my daughter's college education/…

ah yeah good ol' "but Africa" reasoning. You can apply that logic to almost everything. Sorry but why don't you return your freshly bought iPhone and donate the money to charity's? And do you really need a car, can't you ride your bike? Do we really need Reddit if we could buy food in Africa instead?

Maybe that's a little harsh, but we spend money EVERY friggn day on things that could be invested in Africas problems. Making this point leads to nowhere and Africa's problems are far more complex anyway. There's defiantly nothing wrong in donating a few bucks to Reddit.

(also pacifism is neither extreme nor wrong)

Re: Reddit needs help

#59

Post by vaksel »

axod wrote: post #35
vaksel wrote: post #6

280 million page views a month and they aren't breaking even to support 4 engineers? wtf

They have a userbase which is ridiculously hard to monetize (IMHO). I'd bet the % of adblock users on Reddit is way higher than the average. The Reddit crowd aren't your average mainstream user. It's a particular crowd (liberal anti-capitalism pro-cannabis etc etc) [Again, just my opinion] Also they really have very few adverts at all on the site, and those that are there, are tucked away not very noticable. Say you…

if your audience is hard to monetize, then you go for CPM advertising. That way you get big name brands that want to raise awareness about their products rather than convert users to buy a widget.

This way they'd get more or less guaranteed $3-4 CPM...the fact that reddit has 4 engineers and 0 sales people goes to show that they aren't even trying to monetize the site.

Re: Reddit needs help

#60

Post by Super_Jambo »

axod wrote: post #40
blhack wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't digg have something like 40 full time employees?

I thought it was even more than that at one point. But I think Digg went the "perpetual investment" route as a business model didn't they?

Definitely seen an article stating Digg had 70 employees.
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