Reddit raises $410M in new funding • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#331

Post by heartbreak » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:24 AM UTC

kevinmchugh wrote: post #322

tootie wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is that reddit culture is virulently anti-consumerist and throw a fit every time they see an ad. I'll bet they get terrible conversion rates.

There's a lot of redditors who sense a corporate conspiracy anytime a brand name is mentioned, but there's tons of subreddits entirely about consumption. Media, food, hobbies. I was active on r/homebrewing for years and people talk about products they want to buy all the time. The trouble with those types is they all have very strong opinions and think most products are crap. They're not opposed to buying things, jus…

There are also active subreddits for specific brands like /r/djimavic and /r/SonyAlpha

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#332

Post by spookthesunset » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:31 AM UTC

warning26 wrote: post #171

wintermutestwin wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a great way to prod those specialized communities to bail to the next diggredditetc. People are going to those specialized communities to get real information from real users, not lies and misinformation (ads and marketing).

Eh, I'd say most of the hardcore Reddit users have both old.reddit as well as an Ad Blocker, so I'm guessing that slightly better ad configuration tools wouldn't adversely impact the longtime users too much. As for other users, they are already seeing incredibly random and irrelevant ads. Seeing actual photography themed ads on a photography themed forum doesn't seem that bad IMO (provided that they are clearly marke…

Naw. The new Reddit design is much nicer than the old. There, I said it. It is much easier to use. It took them a while to iron out the bugs but it is way better.

Now their new mobile app video player… ho boy…..

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#333

Post by ramraj07 » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:31 AM UTC

1024core wrote: post #312

Reddit is on its way down. It's been overrun by power-tripping mods, and there's no way to appeal a perma-ban ! I've been banned from /r/india for just commenting on another sub (/r/chodi, which was recommended by the app itself!); banned from /r/worldnews for disagreeing with the herd. The moment a decent, democratic discussion forum comes along, I'll jump ship to it.

Chodi is like the Indian version of TheDonald so no wonder. Not that /r/India is neutral either. Stop going to politics subs and you’ll be fine?

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#334

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:35 AM UTC

evandwight wrote: post #266

jimmydorry wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing to stop people or groups of people from making thousands of accounts and joining the sub, and then eventually taking control. Even if these user accounts have to be X years old, or subbed for Y months, none of that matters in the long term.

Yes. With this system it would be important to verify identities on sign up. I think verifying phone number would largely resolve the issue (SMS short codes don't work on VOIP phones). There many other levels to reduce fake accounts that can be added if problems begin to occur. The main issue is the more difficult sign up is, the less people sign up. It's a balancing act. With any voting system you have to detect the…

[deleted]

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#335

Post by Clewza313 » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:36 AM UTC

tech_tuna wrote: post #327

jasondigitized wrote: post #293

Why does Reddit need funding? Legitimate question. What are they going to spend this money on? A direct ad sales team? I would assume it takes a somewhat small engineering and DevOps team to keep it running. Is there a huge roadmap of features that requiring $100m in engineering?

Hiring, they are on a hiring tear.

But that's precisely the question: why are they hiring?

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#336

Post by fshbbdssbbgdd » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:45 AM UTC

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #161

l72 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to advertise a product to a very niche group on reddit. I just wanted to select 4 specific sub-reddits and advertise to anyone that was a member or viewed that reddit. For some reason, reddit wouldn't let me advertise to 3 of the 4, and the 1 that they did let me advertise was very low volume (less than 100 members). I couldn't even get reddit to show a single ad, let alone have anyone click on it. Facebook b…

Yes, this. Google and Facebook make it super easy to advertise. Whenever I've tried to advertise on Reddit, nothing shows up, I have no idea why, and the advertising UI gives me no clues.

I’m feeling bad for some unknown director at Reddit when their boss reads this thread.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#337

Post by PhoenixReborn » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:45 AM UTC

gkoberger wrote: post #174

setr wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Their ads are the worst of all the big social networks, given how anonymous their base is. So they're forced to innovate, which I think is good for everyone The oddity is that their user's aren't that anonymous -- in fact, they very directly tell reddit what their interests are. Like a trade magazine, reddit really doesn't have to do any analysis at all to figure out how to map ads to the right target audience. It c…

My quick Google-ing shows that they make about $100M/year on ads. So they do this and it works decently well. However, ads at other social networks have evolved way past this level of targeting (which is a bad thing, in my opinion, but alas). Social networks like Facebook know so much about not just your likes but the people you're friends with and how much your income is and what stores you've been to and what you d…

They actually made 100M in a single quarter recently, and not a year. Source: https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/reddit-raises-410-million-in...

So let's say their annual revenue is 3-4x since ad spend is usually weighted heavily towards Q4. At 300-400M per year and growing that's actually pretty solid.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#338

Post by question000 » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:48 AM UTC

jasondigitized wrote: post #293

Why does Reddit need funding? Legitimate question. What are they going to spend this money on? A direct ad sales team? I would assume it takes a somewhat small engineering and DevOps team to keep it running. Is there a huge roadmap of features that requiring $100m in engineering?

If Reddit doesn't get this funding it will become insolvent it's valuation will be seen as the obvious BS it is, companies like Pinterest, Tiktok, Twitter, maybe even YouTube will collapse overnight. Reddit MUST show growth, even if it's just buying clicks and junking the stats, if it doesn't all our jobs go out the window.

But I'm pretty sure they will, the big thing now is to have a big e-commerce advertising component to "unknowingly" facilitate money laundering. Expect spam to explode and be repeatedly ghettoized, it already happening on their porn subs. Entirely fake traffic with bots talking to bots.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#339

Post by generalpf » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:48 AM UTC

tech_tuna wrote: post #327

jasondigitized wrote: post #293

Why does Reddit need funding? Legitimate question. What are they going to spend this money on? A direct ad sales team? I would assume it takes a somewhat small engineering and DevOps team to keep it running. Is there a huge roadmap of features that requiring $100m in engineering?

Hiring, they are on a hiring tear.

I was contacted by a recruiter from Reddit for a mobile position. They said they were doubling their engineering staff in 2021.

Re: Reddit raises $410M in new funding

#340

Post by cwkoss » Fri, Aug 13, 2021, 1:51 AM UTC

hutzlibu wrote: post #288

cwkoss wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it probably needs to not be fully automatic, but users should be able to vote to nominate a moderator for removal or addition, subject to admin discretion. Ideally, any user of the sub should be able to see the 'case' and contribute why they think the mod would/is doing a good/bad job, and people can upvote and downvote reasons. Maybe kind of use AITA's style of comment voting (but with admins finalizing deci…

Not fully automating, means humans for each reddit big enough. (What is big enough?) That is expensive. So this probably means lots of decisions in short time for those administrators ... means lots of wrong decision and lots of drama. Voting? Who has the right to vote? Anyone? Any socketpuppet account? Only verified real people? (would be a different reddit) The base problem is called politics.

I think eligibility should be based on a minimum karma-within-subreddit (comments and submissions) threshold.

And yeah, this would cost Reddit some in admin labor, but they should be able to use some of this revenue stream towards those few hires. I'd imagine a team of 6 would be plenty for this purpose, maybe could get away with 2 or 3.