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Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

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Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#81

Post by GavinB »

komali2 wrote: post #39
minimaxir wrote: post #16

I've been a fan of Reddit for a very long time (as the amount of data science work I've done with their data can attest to), but lately it seems like the incentives between Reddit as a business and Reddit as a community leader are not aligned, and that is a problem. The increasing amount of dark patterns Reddit has been employing lately is concerning. (recent example: Reddit now gates content in mobile Safari to push…

Re: "Download the app!" gates, banners, etc. Medium does this too. Why? What's the business reason? What does a native app provide the business that a mobile website doesn't?

It gives users easier access and a better experience, so they're more likely to return and to spend longer. The ultimate goal is to become a "default time waster" for as many people as possible, who open the app whenever they're bored.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#82

Post by jron »

jedberg wrote: post #60
marknadal wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Max, would you be willing to evaluate Reddit alternatives? One is https://notabug.io/ after the Aaron Swarz quote, has seen hypergrowth since it started a few months ago using our P2P tech.

You do realize that reddit owns Notabug, Inc, yeah?

notabug.io isn't owned by Reddit.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#83

Post by Liru »

kodablah wrote: post #36

I have an idea for Reddit if they want to make money: I know your site is open source, but it is not an easy setup. The mixture between forum, customizable subreddits, and almost chat-like threading is tailor made for intra-company communication. We all feel the pain of ephemeral chat and closed-recipient email to do business. Employees need a way to show off, communicate, post neat things, customize their department…

Modern reddit isn't open source.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#84

Post by rndmize »

collyw wrote: post #21
brettgriffin wrote: post #5

I've given up most social media but have become obsessed with Reddit. No matter how much I use it, I'm constantly amazed that I can be immediately connected with the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic people on virtually any subject I care about. I'm not a fan of the redesign or their push to look at other social media platforms, but I understand the direction they have to go to build revenue.

> I can be immediately connected with the most knowledgeable and enthusiastic people on virtually any subject I care about. Politics on Reddit seems to fall into either The_Donald or "Orange man bad" with very little objectivity in the middle in my experience.

There's a decent amount in the middle, but it's not as well known and will never hit the front page - 3 second memes are easier to process and upvote.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NeutralPolitics/

https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalDiscussion/

CMV and ELI5 also have decent political discussion at times I think; askHistorians often seems to provide insight into current political issues; there's probably more I don't know.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#85

Post by pitaj »

ppod wrote: post #45
minimaxir wrote: post #16

I've been a fan of Reddit for a very long time (as the amount of data science work I've done with their data can attest to), but lately it seems like the incentives between Reddit as a business and Reddit as a community leader are not aligned, and that is a problem. The increasing amount of dark patterns Reddit has been employing lately is concerning. (recent example: Reddit now gates content in mobile Safari to push…

I've always thought that the day they crossed the line was when they arbitrarily changed which subreddits were default, removing some (such as /r/atheism) with no real reason. At the very early days of reddit, discussing atheism positively was still kind of unusual in the news. Then, over time, it became a very popular position and advocacy case especially among developers, and new users found the stridency and repet…

r/atheism was made no longer a default because it became notoriously toxic

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#86

Post by jedberg »

charlesdm wrote: post #41
Someone1234 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit has 230 staff (as of July 2017). edit (removed wrong maths): $1.9m per month in staffing costs @ 230 employees/100K each. Although a reply below says the staff may have almost doubled and $100K may be a low guestimate for the area (inc. benefits, etc). My question would be: Why does Reddit have 230+ staff? What do most of them do?

Didn't they have like one or two developers just a few years ago? Or am I remembering this wrong?

We had fiveish developers for the first fiveish years. Then it sort of exploded after that.

To fair, five wasn't enough. We spent too much time firefighting and not enough time innovating.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#87

Post by jondubois »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #8

Reddit has been raising money for almost 15 years! I wish I had the connections to VC's that reddit apparently does. I can definitely spend all the money a VC gives me, then raise more money, and then spend all that money, and never turn a profit for 15 or 20 years.

They could have funded 150 startups for 10 years and created 1500 highly motivating startup jobs with that money but instead it will just maintain the status quo, pay Reddit engineers to be corporate cattle and allow reddit to be as innefficient as ever.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#88

Post by eeZah7Ux »

Theodores wrote: post #32

This is a crazy revenue model. It is reminiscent of the dot com era when land grabs were a thing. But a lot has settled down since the fun days and it is not possible to get investors onboard with promises when there is a clear track record. The track record does look okay: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=reddit There is continued growth in engagement. But still, shouldn't the actual product - the…

> It is reminiscent of the dot com era when land grabs were a thing

That's exactly what it is. A land grab of people's attention.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#89

Post by rlv-dan »

aluminussoma wrote: post #34

Ever since the site redesign in May, popularity has been falling (source: Alexa Top Websites): https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/reddit.com I hope that affected the amount of money they raised. As a reddit fan, the site redesign has not been pleasant. The mobile experience, too.

In case someone missed it: replace "www" with "old" to get the old design back.

Re: Reddit is raising a huge round near a $3B valuation

#90

Post by wnevets »

minimaxir wrote: post #16

I've been a fan of Reddit for a very long time (as the amount of data science work I've done with their data can attest to), but lately it seems like the incentives between Reddit as a business and Reddit as a community leader are not aligned, and that is a problem. The increasing amount of dark patterns Reddit has been employing lately is concerning. (recent example: Reddit now gates content in mobile Safari to push…

There are so many more issues with Reddit, I'm surprised they haven't been digg'd or myspace'd yet.
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