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Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

blog.reddit.com

61–70 of 116 posts

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#61
post #24

Sad to see them hiring an outside CEO instead of promoting from within. I don't think hired CEOs work so well for products that are still at the stage Reddit is at. They need someone with deep, intimate knowledge of the community and the product. The best source for that in my opinion would be internal.

I believe they only have one person from within still there that could do it.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#62
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

People pay for Reddit Gold. I don't see why they wouldn't pay for an @reddit.com email address, too.

Or perhaps the email address could come with Reddit Gold

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#64

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…

Even something like coffee table books would be a nightmare to get all the rights lined up. Having users post content on an open website allows you to shrug off a lot of these problems compared to actually publishing it yourself. A lot of the content on Reddit consists in writing from people using throwaway accounts they'll never check again (i.e. /r/IAmA, /r/AskReddit, etc.) or in "borrowing" images from pop culture or random strangers where it may be impossible to ever track down or secure the rights for (i.e. /r/vertical and /r/adviceanimals).

And there's nothing stopping someone other than Reddit from monetizing all that content the same way. If I wanted to, I could send private messages to hundreds of Redditors and get permission to include their comments in a self-help book gleaned from AskReddit comments, and Reddit would have absolutely no advantage over me in doing this, nor any way to stop me. As far as any content on Reddit goes, the story is the same way. Just as Hacker Weekly operates independent of YC and the people who run HN.

I think if you want to monetize Reddit, monetizing the audience isn't the only way. There's no reason Reddit can't, aside from having subreddits, sell paid hosting for completely separate, possibly private reddits that don't connect to Reddit itself.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#65
post #38
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, Reddit started at the same time Digg did. It's been growing slowly and consistently ever since. Their growth rate actually hasn't changed much over time. Reddit figured out how to support subcommunities in a way that those other sites never did. In my opinion that's what's different. See also: social networks. Every social network was a passing fad...until Facebook wasn't.

Is it growing slowly and consistently, or experiencing explosive growth? The link I was replying to shows that while Reddit and Digg started at about the same time, Reddit really only took off when Digg committed suicide. http://soshable.com/reddit-traffic-has-exploded-in-12-months...

Consistent exponential growth (which is what Reddit has been experiencing since launch, in 2005) always looks explosive once the base gets big enough.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#66

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…

r/gaming, there aren't many natural industry fits

I wonder if then that speaks to interesting business opportunities? There appears then to be a misalignment between traditional industries and what people are actually interested in.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#67
post #56
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, Reddit started at the same time Digg did. It's been growing slowly and consistently ever since. Their growth rate actually hasn't changed much over time. Reddit figured out how to support subcommunities in a way that those other sites never did. In my opinion that's what's different. See also: social networks. Every social network was a passing fad...until Facebook wasn't.

facebook wasn't You meant it hasn't so far. That's not a dig at Facebook, or a prediction of death, but on the short timescale we're looking at (a few years really) it's much to soon to know whether they've stopped the cycle, or made it slower. And therefore you can extent that to Reddit, the fact that they've gone longer without decline doesn't mean they won't start their decline tomorrow, or the next day.

Sure, but "they might start declining someday" can be said about literally any large web property. It's not something MORE true about Reddit.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#68

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…

In my experience, I've gotten really poor responses from the Reddit admins almost every time. When I say poor I mean 'none'.

I don't think it's a function of them being bad or lazy, but being such a small team for such an enormous site. I can't imagine being the sole community manager for such a monster. You have to triage between "will answer tersely" and "will ignore". And unless it's a lawsuit or a fire about to burn down the server room, almost everybody seems to end up in "will ignore".

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#69
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

In my experience, I've gotten really poor responses from the Reddit admins almost every time. When I say poor I mean 'none'. I don't think it's a function of them being bad or lazy, but being such a small team for such an enormous site. I can't imagine being the sole community manager for such a monster. You have to triage between "will answer tersely" and "will ignore". And unless it's a lawsuit or a fire about to b…

I know what you mean. It must be pretty hard.

I tried many times with no luck. Shame really, because @reddit.com could be deployed like really really fast.

I guess I'll give it another go perhaps. Maybe use a promoted ad to get their attention (and support Reddit in the process :) )

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#70
post #61
post #24

Sad to see them hiring an outside CEO instead of promoting from within. I don't think hired CEOs work so well for products that are still at the stage Reddit is at. They need someone with deep, intimate knowledge of the community and the product. The best source for that in my opinion would be internal.

I believe they only have one person from within still there that could do it.

Do they need more than one CEO?

Sounds like you should have said "they still have someone within who could do it!"

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