Reddit becomes reddit Inc. • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#41

Post by citricsquid » Tue, Sep 06, 2011, 8:13 PM UTC

barredo wrote: post #27

jkaljundi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be really amazed if Reddit would sell so low, considering their fast-growing visitor numbers. http://blog.reddit.com/2011/09/how-reddit-works.html

Remember Reddit Only has one ad per pageview

That's the theoretical maximum, in reality it's much much lower. For the sake of this comment I just visited a few random reddit pages, I saw:

2 adverts for reddit merchandise,

1 reddit flash game,

1 advert for reddit gold,

1 for a subreddit,

1 "thanks for not using adblock",

1 for the reddit ad system,

1 for a conference called poptech

and then on 3 pages I saw "sponsored links".

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#42

Post by jkaljundi » Tue, Sep 06, 2011, 8:18 PM UTC

klbarry wrote: post #21

jkaljundi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would be really amazed if Reddit would sell so low, considering their fast-growing visitor numbers. http://blog.reddit.com/2011/09/how-reddit-works.html

However, Reddit users are notoriously cheap and anti-commercial.

Sure, it´s not easy. But there are and will be many reveue sources. http://mashable.com/2011/02/08/reddit-hires/ once said: "This kind of traffic growth has helped the site lure “big-ticket” advertisers, according to site admins; another rising source of revenue is the site’s sponsored link system, which is used to promote SMBs, startups, blog posts, YouTube videos and other kinds of content. And Reddit Gold continues to be a success, too."

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#43

Post by staunch » Tue, Sep 06, 2011, 8:28 PM UTC

raldi wrote: post #40

staunch wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first thought when they said you were on the board was "Well at least we'll have an honest witness to the train wreck that's likely to ensue." I really hope they actually listen to you. Would you consider taking the CEO job there? Best possible outcome.

Conde Nast buys reddit, and people predict a train wreck. Conde Nast spins reddit off, and people predict a train wreck. There's just no pleasing you guys...

For years the cat was bored with the mouse so it just kept it caged up and starving. But the mouse got fat and juicy anyway. Now the cat is licking its lips.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#44

Post by weinzierl » Tue, Sep 06, 2011, 8:39 PM UTC

joshklein wrote: post #31

The question for reddit isn't whether or not people enjoy it and want to spend time on it, but whether or not the owners can make money selling those people's attention. The traffic to reddit - while admirably large - is relatively unattractive to most advertisers. "Reach" (impressions/eyeballs) are only important insofar as you're talking to someone who might buy what you're selling (see "relevancy"). The sub-reddit…

"The sub-reddit system could theoretically segment the audience in interesting ways, but other than r/gaming, there aren't many natural industry fits amongst popular sub-reddits." In my opinion this is only true for a few (admittedly most popular) subreddits like r/funny and r/wtf and everything nsfw . Nearly every subreddit that I read has an industry that fits, r/photography -> photo gear, r/parenting -> baby stuff, r/science -> journals and books, r/somethingimade -> etsy, etc. I'm also sure that reddit knows a lot more about my interests than google and facebook together. But maybe that's just me...

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#45

Post by 0x12 » Tue, Sep 06, 2011, 8:43 PM UTC

thurn wrote: post #2

Can someone with more business know-how tell me how a company like Condé Nast benefits from making Reddit an incorporated subsidiary? It doesn't sound like all that much is changing, honestly.

If they keep Reddit as part of the mothership they can't sell it whole or in part. This is the first step in a process of divestment. The valuation that they are tossing around should be seen as the asking price if and when they do. It would highly surprise me if that asking price was met or even approached by an outside party.

Note that a deal at that valuation did not go through, and that likely that valuation was an important reason why it didn't.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#46

Post by eli » Tue, Sep 06, 2011, 8:43 PM UTC

weinzierl wrote: post #44

joshklein wrote: post #31

The question for reddit isn't whether or not people enjoy it and want to spend time on it, but whether or not the owners can make money selling those people's attention. The traffic to reddit - while admirably large - is relatively unattractive to most advertisers. "Reach" (impressions/eyeballs) are only important insofar as you're talking to someone who might buy what you're selling (see "relevancy"). The sub-reddit…

"The sub-reddit system could theoretically segment the audience in interesting ways, but other than r/gaming, there aren't many natural industry fits amongst popular sub-reddits." In my opinion this is only true for a few (admittedly most popular) subreddits like r/funny and r/wtf and everything nsfw . Nearly every subreddit that I read has an industry that fits, r/photography -> photo gear, r/parenting -> baby stuff…

Gaming isn't even an especially lucrative market in terms of ads.

Now, if they had a /r/PharmaExecutives...

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#47

Post by _delirium » Tue, Sep 06, 2011, 8:49 PM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #25

gigantor wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're currently experiencing explosive growth: http://soshable.com/reddit-traffic-has-exploded-in-12-months... They have also, in my opinion, implemented mainstream and niche news so well (via subreddits) that they're not in immediate danger of being replaced by another aggregate news and/or niche site.

Traffic growth is a cost, not a revenue. Usually there's some revenue associated with that traffic growth, but there's no indication Reddit's infamously anti-commercial user base is very easy to monetize.

I have no idea how open they are to exploiting it, but I'd bet just having a high-traffic social hub has significant monetary value in the data and analytics. Twitter makes millions selling analytics and feeds, and will probably increase that in the future. I'd personally pay something for all sorts of slices of Reddit data; for example, a real-time feed of pageview info, or a firehose of all comments, would be great. Of course, the real question is whether people with more money than me would pay.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#48

Post by fabiandesimone » Tue, Sep 06, 2011, 8:50 PM UTC

joshklein wrote: post #31

The question for reddit isn't whether or not people enjoy it and want to spend time on it, but whether or not the owners can make money selling those people's attention. The traffic to reddit - while admirably large - is relatively unattractive to most advertisers. "Reach" (impressions/eyeballs) are only important insofar as you're talking to someone who might buy what you're selling (see "relevancy"). The sub-reddit…

Some time ago, the Reddit community expressed their interest to have an @reddit email account (they were willing to pay for POP access, etc.). I tried to contact the Reddit admins by Reddit messages, email, Facebook, etc, because we can provide them with @reddit mail accounts in no time and scalability is not an issue (we have installations in some of the biggest ISPs in the world) and it would cost them nothing as we were wanting to do a rev-share deal. Sadly I never heard back.

There's an opportunity to monetize Reddit users, even if they seem somewhat far from the core product.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#49

Post by mibbit » Tue, Sep 06, 2011, 8:52 PM UTC

raldi wrote: post #40

staunch wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My first thought when they said you were on the board was "Well at least we'll have an honest witness to the train wreck that's likely to ensue." I really hope they actually listen to you. Would you consider taking the CEO job there? Best possible outcome.

Conde Nast buys reddit, and people predict a train wreck. Conde Nast spins reddit off, and people predict a train wreck. There's just no pleasing you guys...

> Conde Nast buys reddit, and people predict a train wreck.

Has it not been a train wreck in terms of profitability? Or is Reddit making a few hundred million in profit nowadays?

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#50

Post by rmc » Tue, Sep 06, 2011, 8:59 PM UTC

fabiandesimone wrote: post #48

joshklein wrote: post #31

The question for reddit isn't whether or not people enjoy it and want to spend time on it, but whether or not the owners can make money selling those people's attention. The traffic to reddit - while admirably large - is relatively unattractive to most advertisers. "Reach" (impressions/eyeballs) are only important insofar as you're talking to someone who might buy what you're selling (see "relevancy"). The sub-reddit…

Some time ago, the Reddit community expressed their interest to have an @reddit email account (they were willing to pay for POP access, etc.). I tried to contact the Reddit admins by Reddit messages, email, Facebook, etc, because we can provide them with @reddit mail accounts in no time and scalability is not an issue (we have installations in some of the biggest ISPs in the world) and it would cost them nothing as w…

How much have people said they'd pay? I doubt it'll be that much. How can you do it for free? The email market seems to free now, can you really make money by selling email?