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Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

reuters.com

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Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#31

Post by lawrenceyan »

pragma84 wrote: post #24

I imagine a great deal of Reddit's value comes from the fact that its front page is essentially a mass viral advertising engine under the guise of original content. I remember reading only a handful of moderators control all of reddit's most popular subreddits, the ones frequently hitting the front page. These I'm sure are just sock accounts for marketing firms to use when they mass promote content. I wonder how much…

Hopefully this doesn't come off as too aggressive, but can I ask why it was necessary for you to create a new account in order to make this comment?

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#32

Post by ayemiller »

At some point, free Reddit is going to have to start to suck in order to make money. If they make premium Reddit simply behave the way that current free Reddit does and abandon the silly "awards-based" revenue model, I think they might stand a chance to turn a profit.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#33

Post by bane »

cheeze wrote: post #19

Saddens me how far the site has fallen. The abysmal mobile experience shoehorning you into using their low quality app is frustrating. It makes sense, need to monetize and appeal to the average internet user, but it bums me out there isn't a great replacement as of now. Many small communities that I like, but one of my favorite search queries is "_________ reddit" Need to understand timeshares? Want the best rice coo…

Of course there's nothing preventing them from monitoring the site either. The drive to app pattern is atrocious and has driven me to use the site significantly less.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#34

Post by throwawaysea »

Reddit is as bad as Twitter. It has turned into a massive echo chamber, especially after they went on their ban spree. They banned r/thedonald but allowed r/politics to remain, which is a mess of uncritical discussions, brigading, downvote trains, and worse. This has led to left-wing politics and perspectives dominating virtually all the top subs and you can’t really escape it whether you’re looking at r/pics or r/technology or even subs for your local town or city. Some smaller subs like r/moderatepolitics are a welcome haven for those seeking civil discussion but it is disappointing to see the much bigger front page subs turned into weaponized echo chambers.

In general the site has had an ever expansive censorship policy, banning anything they consider “hate speech” without recognizing that there are two sides to many of these conversations. For example, Reddit also removed subreddits like r/gendercritical, which means conversations that challenge and critically explore modern transactivist views can’t happen. Whatever your stance on the issue, this is a live and controversial topic where everyone must be allowed to state their views even if activists and Silicon Valley companies disagree. The departure from their founding free speech principles is very disappointing.

Reddit’s history of using dark patterns to push their app is also infuriating and anti-user. And the desktop website is also a mess that seems to be less functional than old.reddit.com and more geared towards “engagement”. It has reached the point that it is “bad for society” since millions of people can be manipulated by this site quite easily. Subreddits regularly see brigading on politically sensitive or popular topics, and it is easy to spot - a subreddit with a few votes on each typical story will suddenly see thousands of votes on a story experiencing brigading.

I really hope they see viable competition, but with network effects being what they are, it’ll be tough. Many of the alternatives (https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditAlternatives/comments/km9468/...) have only seen minor traction.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#36

Post by bransonf »

wyxuan wrote: post #9

6 billion dollars seems cheap is my original thought but really it seems like a good amount. Reddit can't really expand a significant amount more(as evidenced by their moves into video) and the monetization is terrible(who wants to buy Reddit premium, or advertise on Reddit?)

Advertising is largely untapped on Reddit though. Forgetting about the main subreddits and meme communities and whatnot, you have captive audiences for small niches.

Say you sell bespoke bike parts or audiophile-quality headphones, there are subreddits for that. Or say /r/pcmasterrace is an opportunity for Asus, Corsair, etc.

I assume many companies are already active on Reddit, but there’s an opportunity for Reddit to better the experience for some fee

Effective advertising relies on good market segmentation and intent, and Reddit happens to do both in a non-intrusive way.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#37

Post by chambo622 »

wyxuan wrote: post #9

6 billion dollars seems cheap is my original thought but really it seems like a good amount. Reddit can't really expand a significant amount more(as evidenced by their moves into video) and the monetization is terrible(who wants to buy Reddit premium, or advertise on Reddit?)

My parents in their 60s have discovered that Reddit is a great source of research to get real humans talking about a variety of topics (basically what Quora aimed to be but never was). I strongly feel they're just getting started.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#38

Post by SkyMarshal »

mberning wrote: post #23
goalieca wrote: post #2

Reddit seems even better than Facebook at owning your mind.

I have friends that are addicted to reddit and their world view is basically the reddit front page. There are many great subreddits, but the front page is completely gamed and owned by a small number of people. Even innocuous subs like pics or mildlyinteresting are coopted at a moments notice to push whatever the prevailing agenda is. There is almost no critical thought or countervailing opinions in discussion. A few…

You have to unsubscribe from all the default and front page reddits, they're mostly trash. But there are tons of niche subreddits that are actually interesting and have some expert commentary on their topics.

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#39

Post by robbiemitchell »

cheeze wrote: post #19

Saddens me how far the site has fallen. The abysmal mobile experience shoehorning you into using their low quality app is frustrating. It makes sense, need to monetize and appeal to the average internet user, but it bums me out there isn't a great replacement as of now. Many small communities that I like, but one of my favorite search queries is "_________ reddit" Need to understand timeshares? Want the best rice coo…

Have you tried Apollo (iOS)?

Re: Reddit valued at $6B on a $250M round

#40

Post by radicalriddler »

monsieurbanana wrote: post #10
goalieca wrote: post #2

Reddit seems even better than Facebook at owning your mind.

Considering the enormity of what you're saying, more details would be nice.

We've literally just seen it with GME. Mods of a certain subreddit were able to manipulate a 3 million person sub to manipulate the stock market, and to make massive profits for themselves. Due to the nature of reddit, it also suckered millions of people who'd never bought stocks before to hold bags.

If that's something that moderators can do, by curating the content on their subreddit, then what can admins do?

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