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Reddit Rumored To Be Raising Money, At A $400 Million Valuation

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11–20 of 79 posts

Re: Reddit Rumored To Be Raising Money, At A $400 Million Valuation

#11
post #6
post #2

With all the acquisition write-offs we see, it's pretty awesome to see that this one has worked out so well for Condé Nast. It was such an unconventional acquisition, and now it's worth about half of the New York Times. Other giants in fading industries should take note.

> (...) and now it's worth about half of the New York Times. It's one of those cases where I can't help but think, you know, maybe our metrics are way off.

Why is the NYT this wholy grail, that no company ever can aspire to be worth more than?

For me personally Reddit is much more important than the NYT will ever be. If the NYT disappears tomorrow I couldn't care less. There's other publications that will fill its place. Reddit has allowed me to meet great people, have in-depth conversations on topics that no one in my near vicinity cares about and expand my knowledge into fields I never knew possible. It's a great place.

Re: Reddit Rumored To Be Raising Money, At A $400 Million Valuation

#12
post #3

In recent years I've really grown to despise Reddit, so I'm going to get a kick out of the angst that Redditors will feel when they gradually realize that their interests and Reddit's interests diverge.

The best/worst things about communities like HN and Reddit are that you're only going to get what the community is capable of producing. When the mean age/experience of the community tilts the wrong way the discourse is naturally affected as well.

That said; my Dad has a saying: "things are not as good as they used to be; and they never were"

Re: Reddit Rumored To Be Raising Money, At A $400 Million Valuation

#14
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (...) and now it's worth about half of the New York Times. It's one of those cases where I can't help but think, you know, maybe our metrics are way off.

Why is the NYT this wholy grail, that no company ever can aspire to be worth more than? For me personally Reddit is much more important than the NYT will ever be. If the NYT disappears tomorrow I couldn't care less. There's other publications that will fill its place. Reddit has allowed me to meet great people, have in-depth conversations on topics that no one in my near vicinity cares about and expand my knowledge i…

NYT is one of the very if, possibly only, newspaper media companies with a worldwide brand recognition to actually have value/goodwill in its own right. That is why it is considered to be worth more than other media companies; it is due to its brand and reputation. Not to say this couldn't or won't change at some point.

Re: Reddit Rumored To Be Raising Money, At A $400 Million Valuation

#15
post #6
post #2

With all the acquisition write-offs we see, it's pretty awesome to see that this one has worked out so well for Condé Nast. It was such an unconventional acquisition, and now it's worth about half of the New York Times. Other giants in fading industries should take note.

> (...) and now it's worth about half of the New York Times. It's one of those cases where I can't help but think, you know, maybe our metrics are way off.

What's worth more, producing excellent journalism that occassionally exposes wrongdoing, or entertaining millions of people every day? Is police officer a more laudable occupation than movie director? What about a farmer versus a politician? I don't think it's so obvious that the NYT does more for society than Reddit. (Though you could argue that Reddit is more replaceable.)

Re: Reddit Rumored To Be Raising Money, At A $400 Million Valuation

#16
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love reddit, but I do fear bringing on lots of investors will seriously damage the site and the community. Just look at what appears to have happened with Quora in the scramble to satisfy stakeholders.

What do you think has happened to Quora?

-- Lost a lot of trust in the userbase when they did the ridiculous "Matt has viewed the following questions" stunt.

-- Kicked one of the 2 co-founders, Cheever off, rumour has it he didn't want to go as aggressively after growth as D'Angelo & other powers wanted.

-- Widely sneered at in SV as being the company to look at if you want to know what "taking it too far with forcing growth" means. Their "sign-on to view this content" is a joke. Especially if you combine with their "Our mission is to grow and spread the world's knowledge"

Personally:

-- Their site's JS is a fucking mess. Crashes both my Chrome _as well as_ my iPhone's Safari frequently.

Re: Reddit Rumored To Be Raising Money, At A $400 Million Valuation

#17
post #9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (...) and now it's worth about half of the New York Times. It's one of those cases where I can't help but think, you know, maybe our metrics are way off.

Off in that the NYT should be worth more because it makes money, or off in that Reddit should be worth more because of it's ungodly amounts of traffic and devotion?

Reddit is replaceable. Shut down today, a dozen clones would rise up tomorrow.

NYT on the other hand...

The latter should be worth far more than it is.

Re: Reddit Rumored To Be Raising Money, At A $400 Million Valuation

#18
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love reddit, but I do fear bringing on lots of investors will seriously damage the site and the community. Just look at what appears to have happened with Quora in the scramble to satisfy stakeholders.

What do you think has happened to Quora?

Quora does the dodgy 'Experts Exchange style' answer blurring crap when a google search links you to them. I've blocked them from my google results because of this nonsense.

Re: Reddit Rumored To Be Raising Money, At A $400 Million Valuation

#19

It's surprising that Instagam would be considered a billion dollar business, but Reddit a 400 million dollar business.

Instagram wasn't "worth $1B". It was worth $1B to Facebook (and even more to Twitter, apparently).

It has to be viewed in that context. A context in which Facebook was botching mobile major time and described it as its major challenge in public filings.

Re: Reddit Rumored To Be Raising Money, At A $400 Million Valuation

#20
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (...) and now it's worth about half of the New York Times. It's one of those cases where I can't help but think, you know, maybe our metrics are way off.

Why is the NYT this wholy grail, that no company ever can aspire to be worth more than? For me personally Reddit is much more important than the NYT will ever be. If the NYT disappears tomorrow I couldn't care less. There's other publications that will fill its place. Reddit has allowed me to meet great people, have in-depth conversations on topics that no one in my near vicinity cares about and expand my knowledge i…

> For me personally Reddit is much more important than the NYT will ever be.

Honey Boo Boo is much more important to me than NatGeo and NPR.

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