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Reddit's issue is the issue of so many ad supported websites. Clicks sell ads and controversy draws more clicks than anything else. It's been clear over the la

Reddit's issue is the issue of so many ad supported websites. Clicks sell ads and controversy draws more clicks than anything else. It's been clear over the last few years that the popular subreddits are the ones that have the most dramatic content. Smaller subreddit do tend to have better discourse though until eventually, they get large enough to become popular and start to become the same echo chambers.

shostack 6y ago
First, big brands don't want controversy displayed next to their ads. This is likely behind some moves Reddit has made in the past to clean things up. Second, I'm curious what % of revenue comes from user-purchased post and comment awards from gold. I've noticed those in use quite a bit in some more inflammatory subs like /r/politics. I wonder how they vet payments from users to avoid providing a way for hostile actors to buy visibility while flying under the radar. Ie. Avoiding conflicts of interest from accidentally monetizing trolls.
- Taylor_OD 6y ago
  Big brands don't want to be advertised on r/watchpeopledie but probably have no issue with being advertised on r/relationshipadvice which is almost entirely a sub about controversy and thus drives clicks and revenue. I've done some searching and it seems that reddit gold is a pretty small piece of the reddit revenue. Campaigns start at $50,000 with Reddit Ad's.
  - Taylor_OD 6y ago
    Oh I just found this: https://www.feedough.com/reddit-make-money-reddit-business-model/ https://www.feedough.com/reddit-make-money-reddit-business-m... Reddit made close to 1 million in revenue from Reddit gold in 2016.
    - shostack 6y ago
      That's pretty old data. And I realize I said Gold when what I meant was Reddit Coins, ie. the currency that lets people gild posts with various things like flames, and other colors. I'm deeply interesting in learning what % of revenue that is for them and how quickly it is growing.
      - thejynxed 6y ago
        A recent heavily awarded post was broken down by cost per award. The money spent to award that post what it got was over $24,000, and that was just in the new award types and not the older medal/coin types. Adding the latter in pushed the total to just under $36k for that single post. As for advertising on Reddit, I view it as a fool's errand on the part of advertisers given the extensive popularity of PiHoles and adblocking software among the userbase.
        shostack 6y ago
        Do you have a link to that breakdown? I'd love to dig in further. I suspect that there's a lot of Coins in circulation from Reddit seeding the system. The marginal cost to them is roughly $0. Without being able to confirm if users paid the list price for those awards, I'm not sure we can confidently say Reddit banked ~$36k revenue for that post. That said, my concern is that it creates an environment for misaligned incentives. If say, hostile foreign governments have their troll farms buying awards to increase visibility of divisive and inflammatory posts in key threads, that furthers their agenda and creates a revenue stream for Reddit that is fueled by creating an environment where that flourishes. I'm NOT saying Reddit is actively trying to do this as I think they'd be horrified to find this happening, but they have a fine line to walk here from a product and business standpoint. Re: your other point, I do digital advertising for a living. I can assure you that the vast majority of users on Reddit are not using PiHoles. While many may be using ad blockers, those largely don't work for native ads in the mobile app.

shostack 6y ago

First, big brands don't want controversy displayed next to their ads. This is likely behind some moves Reddit has made in the past to clean things up. Second, I'm curious what % of revenue comes from user-purchased post and comment awards from gold. I've noticed those in use quite a bit in some more inflammatory subs like /r/politics. I wonder how they vet payments from users to avoid providing a way for hostile actors to buy visibility while flying under the radar. Ie. Avoiding conflicts of interest from accidentally monetizing trolls.

Taylor_OD 6y ago
Big brands don't want to be advertised on r/watchpeopledie but probably have no issue with being advertised on r/relationshipadvice which is almost entirely a sub about controversy and thus drives clicks and revenue. I've done some searching and it seems that reddit gold is a pretty small piece of the reddit revenue. Campaigns start at $50,000 with Reddit Ad's.
- Taylor_OD 6y ago
  Oh I just found this: https://www.feedough.com/reddit-make-money-reddit-business-model/ https://www.feedough.com/reddit-make-money-reddit-business-m... Reddit made close to 1 million in revenue from Reddit gold in 2016.
  - shostack 6y ago
    That's pretty old data. And I realize I said Gold when what I meant was Reddit Coins, ie. the currency that lets people gild posts with various things like flames, and other colors. I'm deeply interesting in learning what % of revenue that is for them and how quickly it is growing.
    - thejynxed 6y ago
      A recent heavily awarded post was broken down by cost per award. The money spent to award that post what it got was over $24,000, and that was just in the new award types and not the older medal/coin types. Adding the latter in pushed the total to just under $36k for that single post. As for advertising on Reddit, I view it as a fool's errand on the part of advertisers given the extensive popularity of PiHoles and adblocking software among the userbase.
      - shostack 6y ago
        Do you have a link to that breakdown? I'd love to dig in further. I suspect that there's a lot of Coins in circulation from Reddit seeding the system. The marginal cost to them is roughly $0. Without being able to confirm if users paid the list price for those awards, I'm not sure we can confidently say Reddit banked ~$36k revenue for that post. That said, my concern is that it creates an environment for misaligned incentives. If say, hostile foreign governments have their troll farms buying awards to increase visibility of divisive and inflammatory posts in key threads, that furthers their agenda and creates a revenue stream for Reddit that is fueled by creating an environment where that flourishes. I'm NOT saying Reddit is actively trying to do this as I think they'd be horrified to find this happening, but they have a fine line to walk here from a product and business standpoint. Re: your other point, I do digital advertising for a living. I can assure you that the vast majority of users on Reddit are not using PiHoles. While many may be using ad blockers, those largely don't work for native ads in the mobile app.