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Full context of quote: Andrew: Have you ever regretted selling when you did instead of holding on for a little bit longer? Steve: A little bit longer, no. Als

Full context of quote: Andrew: Have you ever regretted selling when you did instead of holding on for a little bit longer? Steve: A little bit longer, no. Also, when we sold it was the fall of 2006, right before the economy totally tanked. And so, if we had held on a little longer, I think we would have had dark days ahead. If we could have seen the whole future that in four years things would recover and Reddit would be huge and traffic would be great, yeah, I wish I still owned Reddit now and owned it for the last four or five years. For everything to have gone right for us, to have the stomach to survive that economy, I mean, who knows, like Conde Nast’s umbrella helped us during that economy. We could still hire and pay market salaries when a lot of people couldn’t. So, maybe we wouldn’t have even survived. It’s hard to say.

vaksel 16y ago
well the hiring thing, they only had like what 4 employees?
- redthrowaway 16y ago
  Yeah, but they've always been reticent to capitalize on traffic with ads, and the ads they do have are empty half the time. I think they could very easily make quite a bit of money, but it would require monetizing their traffic and selling user data to advertisers. This could likely be done in a way that didn't exploit the trust that the community places in the admins, but it would have to be done carefully, openly, and with a significant development investment.
  - ryanelkins 16y ago
    I wonder what percentage of Reddit users run Adblock - I imagine it's much higher than your typical site.
    - aerique 16y ago
      Yes, but how many have specifically whitelisted Reddit?
      - points 16y ago
        That's not really the issue. The fact they have adblock installed makes them the type of demographic that's hard to monetize. Whitelisting Reddit doesn't magically make them a better demographic.
        bennysaurus 16y ago
        I'm not so sure about that - you have a community that is very tech-oriented and actually volunteering to view ads knowing it is doing the community a benefit. Such people are more likely to pay attention to what is being advertised as well as they're conscious the advertisements are there by choice. Marketing done carefully on such sites can lead to a much more effective turnover if it identifies with the group it's targeting. A few good examples are the beef jerky company and the Reddit soap rescue done about 12 months ago. Forgotten both their names but can do a search if need be :-)
        lsc 16y ago
        eh, the thing is, most of the time, if you are selling, say, kingston ram, when you buy advertising, you are trying to exploit a disparity in information access. I buy lots of ram, right? I've used three grand worth of ram so far this month and have 1/3rd of that on order. I want to pay the lowest price I can for acceptable quality (usually defined as being made by one of several brands.) ram. I spend a fair amount of effort seeking out the lowest price on ram. If you are trying to sell ram to me as a retailer, paying money to reach me is probably going to kill any margin you would get from my purchase... to sell me ram you need to be the lowest price of a particular set of brands that I can find. Getting yourself on google shopping would probably be cheaper, and it would be just as effective (maybe more effective... I assume that when I click thorough a paid add, I expect to pay a premium on the other end to pay for the cost of that click through.) Now, if you are trying to sell ram to someone who, say, doesn't know that google shopping exists, then maybe you can charge more than google shopping and then pay money for an ad to reach that customer. So, in general, less-savvy consumers who don't understand how to effectively price shop are far more valuable to advertisers. And reddit users usually don't fall into that 'less savvy' bucket. Now, this is true for the majority of retailers... people who are trying to sell commodity products. If, on the other hand, you are trying to build a brand, and you can get your add to somehow imply that you are supporting reddit, or you are part of the reddit community (and there is room for that... by buying advertising space, you are supporting reddit, even though you have selfish motives in doing so.) you can effectively leverage that to build your brand amongst those more savvy users (and more savvy users tend to have control of more resources, over time, simply because savvy users generally make better decisions.) So yeah... if you are trying to sell ram to me as a retailer, ads are probably not going to help you. But if you are a ram manufacturer or a ram "brand" (like kingston) and you are trying to put yourself on my list of 'acceptable quality' ram vendors, then advertising on reddit could possibly help you.
  - SnydenBitchy 16y ago
    From what reddit’s admins have stated, Condé Nast has been unwilling to let reddit undercut its other properties on ad rates—they want reddit to be a “premium brand,” like the New Yorker or Vogue. Anyone who’s waded through the typical morass of racism, sexism, and other cluelessness and juvenilia on reddit knows how hopeless this vision is. Compounding the problem, redditors also like to fancy themselves a premium audience—no joke—so even if Condé were willing to let reddit run the caliber of ads that keep sites like 4chan afloat, reddit would face a massive user revolt. It’s an unenviable situation, but that’s what happens when you attract an audience as socially, intellectually, and demographically unappealing as reddit’s.
    - shabda 16y ago
      Demographics, http://www.quantcast.com/reddit.com#demographics http://www.quantcast.com/reddit.com#demographics 45% Female Affluance level relative to US internet: 114/100 "There is a high index of Graduates and Post Graduates here." 31% household income > 100K https://www.google.com/adplanner/site_profile?#siteDetails?identifier=reddit.com&geo=US&trait_type=1&lp=false https://www.google.com/adplanner/site_profile?#siteDetails?i... Female: 24% 31% Household income > 75K Bachelor's degree or more: 53% Yeah this demographic is so unappealing.
      - SnydenBitchy 16y ago
        First, reddit’s own admins have called out these statistics as inaccurate (even the numbers you’ve cited wildly contradict each other). Secondly, and more importantly, have you seen the kind of content that always floats to the front page? Advertisers willing to associate themselves with content like this discussion (http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/du2sa/wow_she_is_hot_wait_wtf/?sort=top http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/du2sa/wow_she_is_hot_w...) and this submission (http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/d6y0n/once_you_go_black_pic/ http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/d6y0n/once_you_go_bla...) are not typically the kind that pay premium rates. I know reddit likes to think of itself as a community of intellectuals and sophisticates, but this self-image has little basis in reality, and every would-be advertiser looking at the site knows it.
- ahemphill 16y ago
  Still do. Their office is literally a room in the corner.
  - jedberg 16y ago
    We have a new guy starting in November, but yes, it is true. We are still in the corner of Wired's office. We figure we can get at least 8 people in there!
- jedberg 16y ago
  I was the first actual employee (everyone else is considered a founder), and I was hired after the acquisition. Yes, it is true that I would have joined beforehand too for a lot less, but just the same, it was nice to have health care and a steady check.
  - johnglasgow 16y ago
    This is way off topic, but I believe we met at the Founders and Cocktails event last month that was held at the lounge across the street from Santana Row. We chatted for a while about the Reddit vs. Digg battle going on at the time.
    - jedberg 16y ago
      Yep, that was me.
AgentConundrum 16y ago
I find the market salaries bit odd. I can't remember who it was, but I distinctly remember one of the admins being quite sarcastic with a "we're not here for the money" comment.
- generalk 16y ago
  He said pay market salaries. Sounds to me like he was paying his employees standard wages, as opposed to having them take pay cuts to make ends meet.
  - AgentConundrum 16y ago
    I think I was loosely translating "market salary" into "average salary for the work they do" which I guess isn't an entirely accurate translation. It's plainly obvious that the reddit guys are overworked (that was half point of reddit gold - they needed to hire more people but CN wouldn't authorize the expenditure), so "market salaries" for their job title wouldn't be the same as market salaries for their responsibilities.
- loire280 16y ago
  Maybe the admins could be coasting at some big company for the same salary but a small fraction of the responsibility.
  - jedberg 16y ago
    That's absolutely true. If I had stayed at eBay, I would be making more money, and would be responsible for a tiny little part of the company.
- jedberg 16y ago
  I think that is all of us. :) We're not in it for the money, because the money isn't that great. Conde is a private company with no stock either.
  - points 16y ago

vaksel 16y ago

well the hiring thing, they only had like what 4 employees?

redthrowaway 16y ago
Yeah, but they've always been reticent to capitalize on traffic with ads, and the ads they do have are empty half the time. I think they could very easily make quite a bit of money, but it would require monetizing their traffic and selling user data to advertisers. This could likely be done in a way that didn't exploit the trust that the community places in the admins, but it would have to be done carefully, openly, and with a significant development investment.
- ryanelkins 16y ago
  I wonder what percentage of Reddit users run Adblock - I imagine it's much higher than your typical site.
  - aerique 16y ago
    Yes, but how many have specifically whitelisted Reddit?
    - points 16y ago
      That's not really the issue. The fact they have adblock installed makes them the type of demographic that's hard to monetize. Whitelisting Reddit doesn't magically make them a better demographic.
      - bennysaurus 16y ago
        I'm not so sure about that - you have a community that is very tech-oriented and actually volunteering to view ads knowing it is doing the community a benefit. Such people are more likely to pay attention to what is being advertised as well as they're conscious the advertisements are there by choice. Marketing done carefully on such sites can lead to a much more effective turnover if it identifies with the group it's targeting. A few good examples are the beef jerky company and the Reddit soap rescue done about 12 months ago. Forgotten both their names but can do a search if need be :-)
        lsc 16y ago
        eh, the thing is, most of the time, if you are selling, say, kingston ram, when you buy advertising, you are trying to exploit a disparity in information access. I buy lots of ram, right? I've used three grand worth of ram so far this month and have 1/3rd of that on order. I want to pay the lowest price I can for acceptable quality (usually defined as being made by one of several brands.) ram. I spend a fair amount of effort seeking out the lowest price on ram. If you are trying to sell ram to me as a retailer, paying money to reach me is probably going to kill any margin you would get from my purchase... to sell me ram you need to be the lowest price of a particular set of brands that I can find. Getting yourself on google shopping would probably be cheaper, and it would be just as effective (maybe more effective... I assume that when I click thorough a paid add, I expect to pay a premium on the other end to pay for the cost of that click through.) Now, if you are trying to sell ram to someone who, say, doesn't know that google shopping exists, then maybe you can charge more than google shopping and then pay money for an ad to reach that customer. So, in general, less-savvy consumers who don't understand how to effectively price shop are far more valuable to advertisers. And reddit users usually don't fall into that 'less savvy' bucket. Now, this is true for the majority of retailers... people who are trying to sell commodity products. If, on the other hand, you are trying to build a brand, and you can get your add to somehow imply that you are supporting reddit, or you are part of the reddit community (and there is room for that... by buying advertising space, you are supporting reddit, even though you have selfish motives in doing so.) you can effectively leverage that to build your brand amongst those more savvy users (and more savvy users tend to have control of more resources, over time, simply because savvy users generally make better decisions.) So yeah... if you are trying to sell ram to me as a retailer, ads are probably not going to help you. But if you are a ram manufacturer or a ram "brand" (like kingston) and you are trying to put yourself on my list of 'acceptable quality' ram vendors, then advertising on reddit could possibly help you.
- SnydenBitchy 16y ago
  From what reddit’s admins have stated, Condé Nast has been unwilling to let reddit undercut its other properties on ad rates—they want reddit to be a “premium brand,” like the New Yorker or Vogue. Anyone who’s waded through the typical morass of racism, sexism, and other cluelessness and juvenilia on reddit knows how hopeless this vision is. Compounding the problem, redditors also like to fancy themselves a premium audience—no joke—so even if Condé were willing to let reddit run the caliber of ads that keep sites like 4chan afloat, reddit would face a massive user revolt. It’s an unenviable situation, but that’s what happens when you attract an audience as socially, intellectually, and demographically unappealing as reddit’s.
  - shabda 16y ago
    Demographics, http://www.quantcast.com/reddit.com#demographics http://www.quantcast.com/reddit.com#demographics 45% Female Affluance level relative to US internet: 114/100 "There is a high index of Graduates and Post Graduates here." 31% household income > 100K https://www.google.com/adplanner/site_profile?#siteDetails?identifier=reddit.com&geo=US&trait_type=1&lp=false https://www.google.com/adplanner/site_profile?#siteDetails?i... Female: 24% 31% Household income > 75K Bachelor's degree or more: 53% Yeah this demographic is so unappealing.
    - SnydenBitchy 16y ago
      First, reddit’s own admins have called out these statistics as inaccurate (even the numbers you’ve cited wildly contradict each other). Secondly, and more importantly, have you seen the kind of content that always floats to the front page? Advertisers willing to associate themselves with content like this discussion (http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/du2sa/wow_she_is_hot_wait_wtf/?sort=top http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/du2sa/wow_she_is_hot_w...) and this submission (http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/d6y0n/once_you_go_black_pic/ http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/d6y0n/once_you_go_bla...) are not typically the kind that pay premium rates. I know reddit likes to think of itself as a community of intellectuals and sophisticates, but this self-image has little basis in reality, and every would-be advertiser looking at the site knows it.
ahemphill 16y ago
Still do. Their office is literally a room in the corner.
- jedberg 16y ago
  We have a new guy starting in November, but yes, it is true. We are still in the corner of Wired's office. We figure we can get at least 8 people in there!
jedberg 16y ago
I was the first actual employee (everyone else is considered a founder), and I was hired after the acquisition. Yes, it is true that I would have joined beforehand too for a lot less, but just the same, it was nice to have health care and a steady check.
- johnglasgow 16y ago
  This is way off topic, but I believe we met at the Founders and Cocktails event last month that was held at the lounge across the street from Santana Row. We chatted for a while about the Reddit vs. Digg battle going on at the time.
  - jedberg 16y ago
    Yep, that was me.

AgentConundrum 16y ago

I find the market salaries bit odd. I can't remember who it was, but I distinctly remember one of the admins being quite sarcastic with a "we're not here for the money" comment.

generalk 16y ago
He said pay market salaries. Sounds to me like he was paying his employees standard wages, as opposed to having them take pay cuts to make ends meet.
- AgentConundrum 16y ago
  I think I was loosely translating "market salary" into "average salary for the work they do" which I guess isn't an entirely accurate translation. It's plainly obvious that the reddit guys are overworked (that was half point of reddit gold - they needed to hire more people but CN wouldn't authorize the expenditure), so "market salaries" for their job title wouldn't be the same as market salaries for their responsibilities.
loire280 16y ago
Maybe the admins could be coasting at some big company for the same salary but a small fraction of the responsibility.
- jedberg 16y ago
  That's absolutely true. If I had stayed at eBay, I would be making more money, and would be responsible for a tiny little part of the company.
jedberg 16y ago
I think that is all of us. :) We're not in it for the money, because the money isn't that great. Conde is a private company with no stock either.
- points 16y ago