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With all due respect, “How expensive could it possibly be to run $popular_site?” is a fairly common HN trope. Reddit has core product development, mobile apps,

by 542458 5y ago

With all due respect, “How expensive could it possibly be to run $popular_site?” is a fairly common HN trope. Reddit has core product development, mobile apps, marketing, ad sales, anti-botting, high-level moderation, new product r&d, etc that all need paid staff. I suspect it’s much more expensive that you think to run all that - and yeah, you could kill most of that and keep just the core product intact, but investors don’t want “lean and humble” they want “go big or go home”. The promise of growth and fending off new entrants is what justifies the sky high valuation, but that can’t happen with a minimalist organization that only maintains an MVP.

Enginerrrd 5y ago
>Reddit has core product development, mobile apps, marketing, ad sales, anti-botting, high-level moderation, new product r&d, etc that all need paid staff Ok, and while this is slightly facetious, it is actually a bit serious: Most of those things have resulted in downslides to quality and increased controversy. Essentially all of reddit's product R&D has been terrible and nearly universally criticized by users. I'd say that's mostly added a ton of risk that the whole site gets abandoned a la digg.
wayoutthere 5y ago
Except most of Reddit’s most valuable users (the ones who spend time and contribute) don’t use any of that because the experience is terrible. Pretty much everyone uses the old.reddit.com that doesn’t really need product development and performs way better than the new site. All of their innovation and product dev is going into the new site, where few people see it. I look at reddit and see a company that has built a product that it’s users like, but they can’t monetize that product. Everything they try the users either revolt over or ignore completely, and the politics of running the site are becoming untenable. I wouldn’t touch this IPO with a mile long stick. There is no upside at any valuation that would be worth an IPO.
- 542458 5y ago
  I actually run a medium-sized sub - our traffic stats show about 50/50 old vs new, and this is the sort of sub that caters to a tech savvy, older userbase - the sort of people I’d imagine would be the core demo for old Reddit. I suspect way more people are using new Reddit than you think, especially on the more general use subs. Or put another way: the people running Reddit aren’t trying to lose money, and they have more detailed traffic stats than we do. I think things like RPAN are silly, but there always seem to be lots of people active on it. Edit: apparently site-wide two years ago 60% of traffic was exclusively new Reddit, 30% was old Reddit, and 10% was a mix.
- colinmhayes 5y ago
  Reddit's most valuable users are the ones that don't use adblockers and use the native app. I'm not sure that's the same group that is contributing and spending time.
- justapassenger 5y ago
  > Except most of Reddit’s most valuable users (the ones who spend time and contribute) don’t use any of that because the experience is terrible. Pretty much everyone uses the old.reddit.com that doesn’t really need product development and performs way better than the new site Source?

by 542458 5y ago

Enginerrrd 5y ago

>Reddit has core product development, mobile apps, marketing, ad sales, anti-botting, high-level moderation, new product r&d, etc that all need paid staff Ok, and while this is slightly facetious, it is actually a bit serious: Most of those things have resulted in downslides to quality and increased controversy. Essentially all of reddit's product R&D has been terrible and nearly universally criticized by users. I'd say that's mostly added a ton of risk that the whole site gets abandoned a la digg.

wayoutthere 5y ago

Except most of Reddit’s most valuable users (the ones who spend time and contribute) don’t use any of that because the experience is terrible. Pretty much everyone uses the old.reddit.com that doesn’t really need product development and performs way better than the new site. All of their innovation and product dev is going into the new site, where few people see it. I look at reddit and see a company that has built a product that it’s users like, but they can’t monetize that product. Everything they try the users either revolt over or ignore completely, and the politics of running the site are becoming untenable. I wouldn’t touch this IPO with a mile long stick. There is no upside at any valuation that would be worth an IPO.

542458 5y ago
I actually run a medium-sized sub - our traffic stats show about 50/50 old vs new, and this is the sort of sub that caters to a tech savvy, older userbase - the sort of people I’d imagine would be the core demo for old Reddit. I suspect way more people are using new Reddit than you think, especially on the more general use subs. Or put another way: the people running Reddit aren’t trying to lose money, and they have more detailed traffic stats than we do. I think things like RPAN are silly, but there always seem to be lots of people active on it. Edit: apparently site-wide two years ago 60% of traffic was exclusively new Reddit, 30% was old Reddit, and 10% was a mix.
colinmhayes 5y ago
Reddit's most valuable users are the ones that don't use adblockers and use the native app. I'm not sure that's the same group that is contributing and spending time.
justapassenger 5y ago
> Except most of Reddit’s most valuable users (the ones who spend time and contribute) don’t use any of that because the experience is terrible. Pretty much everyone uses the old.reddit.com that doesn’t really need product development and performs way better than the new site Source?