Does somebody has a clue about what % of the revenues come from ads and jobs? I understand that there might be other sources too (documentation and such).
How We Make Money at Stack Overflow
21–30 of 227 posts
Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow
#22Perhaps it's time they consider paying Moderators for their time and effort. It doesn't need to be anything large, even a small stipend will suffice.
Moderators are the real lifeblood of StackExchange. They spend countless hours ensuring their respective Sub Exchange hums along. Yes, it's a volunteer "job", but it's a job none-the-less - especially since once you become a Moderator, it's more-or-less expected you have certain responsibilities and obligations. Given StackExchange makes a pretty healthy profit off the efforts of the "volunteers", and given StackExchange is a for profit company, it seems fitting they should have to pay for the labor that creates their profit.
Currently, StackExchange kicks back and rakes in money via various avenues, but then doesn't have to pay staff to actually manage the growing plethora of Sub Exchanges.
We all give companies grief for underpaying or mis-classifying employees, but somehow everyone overlooks StackExchange.
I believe it an accurate statement to say, StackExchange would not be a thing today, if it were not for the innumerable hours worked for free by a growing army of "volunteers".
Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow
#23Thank you for submitting this on HN. I am really happy to see the site grow. > I am extremely protective of our users. You can ask anyone who works here. It’s is my very strong belief that we have a built up a trust with the community that is not easily earned and is impossible to replace. I want to work for a company that respects that trust, and I do. > How much money we make is a direct proxy for how much we are h…
> Introduce anonymous answers.
Or, if you are worried about spam, you could allow signed in users to "post a question|answer anonymously". This would not allow users to see who posted the question, but would allow things like statistics (to track spammers and the like).
Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow
#24Stackoverflow is the prime example for how a company can generate tremenduous value without making that much money.
It's difficult to estimate its contribution to the world economy quantitatively, but I'd definitely say billions, many many billions.
Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow
#25TLDR: They make money through ads, job postings and their enterprise product. The author believes that they can make money and serve users at the same time.
Correct. This question - HOW MUCH MONEY does Stack Overflow make per year - was asked in their Meta site. Granted it's a privately held company but there is atleast 1 answer that quotes "credible sources" and pegs it at atleast 21 MILLION USD in revenues (for 2013).
Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow
#26StackOverflow is an extremely valuable resource for all programmers. I've not seen the option anywhere, but a yearly donation would definitely be something I'd do for a substantial amount (substantial to me as a student, so it's not the moon but not a beer either).
We're humbled hearing from folks like you - your willingness to give back is what makes it all work. Keep your money. But here's how you CAN help, right now: Sign up if you haven't, create a developer story, and when you ARE job-hunting, try Jobs. We I think you'll find it to be the most developer-friendly offering on the planet.
Can vouch for it. I found my current job through SO Careers, and now that we're trying to hire more people, we're finding a good number of our better candidates coming through our SO Careers posting.
Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow
#27Re: 'Why we make money' Is it now shameful to make money, so you have to defend it when you do?
yeah. it's crazy. it costs money to run the servers itself. We are lucky they haven't made the site subscription based or something.
Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow
#28> And we don’t want to use an automated system that selects some ads for us. So they do direct deals mostly, which is antiquated and probably to preserve their branding as a "tech site". > Did you know we have a lot of unpaid inventory on Stack Overflow every month? This is what trying to guess your avails with direct ends up doing. Leaving inventory unmonetized. Typically, you get paid less for less of your inventor…
What you are missing is that there is a cost associated with monetizing the full inventory with automation.
You lose control over what is being shown, you are diluting your brand and you are at risk of alienating your users.
At Stack Overflow we are not willing to make this trade off.
Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow
#29TLDR: They make money through ads, job postings and their enterprise product. The author believes that they can make money and serve users at the same time.
In my opinion, they do a pretty good job of balancing the needs of users and advertisers.
I ask a lot of question, and thus get banned from asking more...
I wish they would have a "luxury" option for like 49.99 a year where students could ask like unlimited questions.
Is this crazy?
Re: How We Make Money at Stack Overflow
#30Thank you for submitting this on HN. I am really happy to see the site grow. > I am extremely protective of our users. You can ask anyone who works here. It’s is my very strong belief that we have a built up a trust with the community that is not easily earned and is impossible to replace. I want to work for a company that respects that trust, and I do. > How much money we make is a direct proxy for how much we are h…
Spam has a lot of problem potential. Dodging spam when you're looking for answers is like jumping in a swimming hole where someone dumped a garbage bag of empty milk containers, lettuce leaves, coffee grounds, plastic wrap... Frankly, it's just another kind of advertisement, and I think it's much worse than the official kind, whose site-killing power you mention.
>Spam is a non-issue here unless spammers model answers like good answers
Many people give answers broad latitude as far as "goodness". Users can also be easily confused: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/337843/review-audit-..., and even moderators are sometimes inclined towards leniency: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/333722/how-is-this-q...
A multi-layered system, starting with some filtering right at the beginning, is, I think, the best way to keep illicit ads under control. Stack Overflow has very high value as a target for spammers and very low amounts of spam compared to that value; I'd really like it to stay that way.
I hate having to register at every new site, too, but I don't think it's entirely unreasonable if you're actually trying to post.