Reddit becomes reddit Inc. • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#111

Post by philwelch » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 3:54 PM UTC

zck wrote: post #88

philwelch wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The rights are already lined up. From Reddit's TOS ( http://www.reddit.com/help/useragreement ): >...you agree that by posting messages...you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, enhance, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, display, or sublicense any such communication in any medium (now in existence or hereinafter develope…

OK, that straightens out most cases, unless you're posting something that doesn't belong to you anyway. AMA compilations are in, but meme picture coffee table books are out.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#112

Post by jbenz » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 6:28 PM UTC

kn0thing wrote: post #96

whatusername wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't that their original business model. I don't think it went very far (although it got them to a ramen level profitability). They also have things like /r/dragonage taht was setup by EA (possibly with a fee?) to promote the game

Indeed. Merch definitely hasn't reached its full potential. And that /r/dragonage sponsorship was indeed paid; I wish more advertisers saw the value of a branded subreddit. That's something for us to do a better job explaining.

I'm very late in responding here, but maybe someone will still see this... Instead of a branded subreddit, do you know what I (as an advertiser) really, really want? A branded novelty account. I want to have a novelty account where I can post comments that are relevant and engaging with an occasional link back to my site, and I'd like for the users of reddit to somehow know that I am a sponsored account (perhaps through a "sponsored account icon" next to my username). My comments would be subject to downvotes and upvotes just like any other comment.

If you, or someone else at Reddit, would like to discuss more, my contact info is in my profile. Cheers.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#113

Post by xsmasher » Wed, Sep 07, 2011, 8:25 PM UTC

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #59

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.

One issue not mentioned here is that Condé Nast has particular rules about staffing that are good for magazines but bad for web sites. These kinds of issues need to be worked through politically every single time they come up. As a stand-alone entity, they won't be subject to those rules, and Condé Nast doesn't have to worry about the rest of its companies saying, "but reddit did it".

I'm interested in learning more about these rules. (This is not snark - I don't know anything about the magazine biz.)

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#114

Post by shoham » Thu, Sep 08, 2011, 3:55 AM UTC

mibbit wrote: post #34

jacoblyles wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selling a minority stake to outside investors is a good way to capitalize the company and give it the resources it needs to grow. Reddit has been notoriously resource-starved. A few hundred million dollars in a partial equity sale fixes that without draining Conde Nast.

The question is, does growing a loss making company make sense? Or should you solve the monetization issue first. Reddit doesn't need more money, it needs to be brave, slap up some real advertising, and start generating real revenue. A website that does 100m pageviews, but makes $10m/yr profit is better than one that does 500m pageviews but makes no profit.

Their ad system has great potential, but right now it's under-developed...

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#115

Post by epicviking » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 2:10 AM UTC

twidlit wrote: post #84

Here are a bunch of monetization ideas that wont divert too much from their culture: 1. paid mobile apps 2. paid API access 3. build an internal Flattr like service 4. offline events 5. go compete with Disqus

I can't even begin to imagine what Reddit would be like if Karma had a monetary value. Karma whore-ier I'd presume.

Re: Reddit becomes reddit Inc.

#116

Post by scottmcf » Fri, Sep 09, 2011, 1:00 PM UTC

mason55 wrote: post #95

krashidov wrote: post #89

I've mentioned this before in a different comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2948396 I would like to see reddit release a product where I, can implement a forum system much like reddit but completely autonomous and hosted on their own service - basically a replacement to the dreaded phpBB. Hell, I'd pay for it.

The reddit code is open source

That's true, however it's not really in a highly usable state. I believe it's one of their aims (although, that's been the case for a while) to remedy that situation, but you'd have a tough time using it in this way at the moment.