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The story of Digg is yet another cautionary tale about the "get big fast" approach. + Digg has 500 servers in two private datacenters. Reddit has dozens on EC2
by staunch 16y ago
The story of Digg is yet another cautionary tale about the "get big fast" approach.
+ Digg has 500 servers in two private datacenters. Reddit has dozens on EC2.
+ Digg has ~100 employees. Reddit has a half dozen.
+ Digg took $40M. Reddit took less than $1M.
Everything we're seeing now the result of the decision to take this path. Half-hearted attempts to resurrect the dying beast are predictable, as is the drama and finger pointing.
It's very unlikely anyone could have saved Digg. Kevin just walked in a situation in which he was setup for failure. Even if he had picked the perfect strategy there's no way he would have the time and support to prove it.
- pg 16y agoReddit took less than $100k.
- whakojacko 16y agoAs of 10 months ago, reddit had 218 EC2 instances (no clue what size). See http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/a2zte/i_run_reddits_servers_and_do_a_bunch_of_other/ http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/a2zte/i_run_reddits_se... Not trying to argue with your overall point though-reddit has definitely run much leaner. edit: I stand corrected, thats just 218 virtual processors.
- points 16y agoReddit is spending $10k a month or something silly on servers, and asking for donations to be able to keep going. I wouldn't hold Reddit up as a shining example of a success story just yet.
- cynicalkane 16y ago$10k per month is peanuts, considering how much money they could make if they knew how to monetize their site. It's pretty clear, from their pathetic advertising strategy and their mis-handling of "Reddit Gold", that they have no idea how to do it. OTOH they don't really have much of an incentive, since they are owned outright by Conde Nast.
- ahi 16y agohuh. All this time I've been assuming they're incompetent for not being able to monetize the site, without ever considering they might not have any intention to do so. A good ad strategy wouldn't see the reddit people any richer, but it would increase the risk of reddit implosion and the loss of their jobs. In this light the Reddit Gold strategy is brilliant. Reddit Gold gives them just enough revenue so they aren't a liability for Conde Nast, and Conde Nast can't fire them for not producing real ad revenue without cutting off the Reddit Gold revenue. That, or they really are idiots.
- iamelgringo 16y agoIt's pretty clear, from their pathetic advertising strategy and their mis-handling of "Reddit Gold", that they have no idea how to do it. Having talked directly with the Reddits directly, it's a bit more complicated than that. The Reddit's hands are tied in a number of ways because of their relationship with Conde Nast. They are quite motivated to make the site profitable, but they have been busy managing the server farm and trying to manage the community with a hand full of guys for quite a while. Conde Nast didn't want them to hire any one else. IMHO, those guys deserve an insane amount of credit for keeping the site up and running rather than contempt because they haven't monetized properly.
- scorpion032 16y ago