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Condé Nast Spins Out Reddit, Without Letting Go

63 points by hornokplease 15y ago

Zakuzaa 15y ago
For the better I think.
deleted 15y ago
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- deleted 15y ago
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bh42222 15y ago
When this is the easiest way to give your growing product what it needs to grow as fast as it can.... Also, anyone think 200mil is a bit cheap for reddit?
- staunch 15y ago
  If anything I think it's a bit high. The reddit community is so unruly that monetizing the site effectively is a major challenge. It makes a good chunk of money but it's very far from profitable I'd guess.
  - ig1 15y ago
    As an advertiser on Reddit, I have to say the UX for advertisers is one of the worst ones I've ever had to use. They could probably vastly increase ad sale conversions if they spent a week redesigning and optimizing it.
  - cbs 15y ago
    >The reddit community is so unruly that monetizing the site effectively is a major challenge. Where unruly means willing to vote with their feet? The biggest problem is that what users are getting at reddit isn't worth all that much and can easily be found in other places online. The second problem is that due to what it is, reddit attracts a greater level of people who don't care for common monitization practices.
    - coderdude 15y ago
      I think by unruly he means that the majority of their users are either 12 years old or act like they're 12 years old. I know that they have an underground that only hangs out on sub-reddits but I would bet those users are in the minority.
    - evan_ 15y ago
      > reddit attracts a greater level of people who don't care for common monitization practices. That's a polite way of putting it. Every ad I've seen with a comments thread has people mostly slagging off the advertiser. Ads without comment threads frequently get nasty threads posted about them, which at least isn't as visible, but if I were in charge of buying ads it would make me wonder why I should continue paying to be attacked.
      - cryptoz 15y ago
        I imagine the idea is that this system should eventually lead to ads that the community actually likes - but I'll admit that doesn't seem to be happening. However, I think that most ads that reddit rages about are pretty terribe ads. For example, a recent ad for a movie (Apollo 18) was hated on because clicking on it sent you to a Facebook login page. That's no good since many people now can't learn about this movie through the ad without signing up for a different website. Another example: I think there was a recent Microsoft ad that took you an unrelated webpage. Again, that ad is no good. The community comments on these things because there have been a lot of terrible ads - ads that don't even let users learn about the product being advertised. However, it doesn't seem like this is actually leading to better ads...
      - 15y ago
- mibbit 15y ago
  > Also, anyone think 200mil is a bit cheap for reddit? Are they profitable yet after 6 years? I'd say 200mil is ridiculously expensive. But then we live in an age where a location based photo sharing app for dogs is probably worth a few billion to some investor.
- 0x12 15y ago
  200 million cheap? You're kidding right? If not, what multiple of profits would you think is reasonable for an established business? What amazes me is that reddit as it is today would be valued at more than several 10's of millions.
  - bane 15y ago
    Yet if it were a startup just out of the gates with some funding, I'm sure we'd be hearing about it having a mythical valuation in the high tens of billions.
yalogin 15y ago
Reddit's quality has gone down exponentially over the last year in line with the exploding traffic. So the majority crowd is probably not the cynical tech bunch anymore - translates to - it could get a little easier to monetize the traffic.
- raldi 15y ago
  Every time a site's traffic doubles, it also doubles the number of people saying it sucks.
  - yalogin 15y ago
    Of course. I am not complaining (may be a little) but I am trying to look at it from a purely business point of view. Its good to hit critical mass, it will be more attractive for advertisers. Reddit will get users that might actually click on some ads unlike me :)
  - Permit 15y ago
    That has no bearing on the truth of the statement. Personally, I have few qualms with the quality of the content on reddit. I think the subreddit subscription model the site is centered around did an excellent job at helping users weed out content they weren't interested in.
    - bh42222 15y ago
      And the reddit enhancement suite will let you block imgur posts.
- unexpected 15y ago
  This often comes out whenever a post about Reddit hits the front page, but I beg to disagree. I think the ratio of quality/to quantity has slid in the wrong direction, but the quality is still there - you just need to know where you look.
  - bh42222 15y ago
mmmmax 15y ago
Kudos to Condé Nast for recognizing the importance of Reddit's independence over the years, and handling the acquisition properly. Aol, Microsoft and even Google could learn something from this...
Apocryphon 15y ago
How analogous is this to the HN-YC relationship?
mkramlich 15y ago
I think 90% of the time this kind of thing is done it's because they're strongly considering selling it off. The rest is just excuses and standard corporate verbage spam.

63 points by hornokplease 15y ago

Zakuzaa 15y ago

For the better I think.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

bh42222 15y ago

When this is the easiest way to give your growing product what it needs to grow as fast as it can.... Also, anyone think 200mil is a bit cheap for reddit?

staunch 15y ago
If anything I think it's a bit high. The reddit community is so unruly that monetizing the site effectively is a major challenge. It makes a good chunk of money but it's very far from profitable I'd guess.
- ig1 15y ago
  As an advertiser on Reddit, I have to say the UX for advertisers is one of the worst ones I've ever had to use. They could probably vastly increase ad sale conversions if they spent a week redesigning and optimizing it.
- cbs 15y ago
  >The reddit community is so unruly that monetizing the site effectively is a major challenge. Where unruly means willing to vote with their feet? The biggest problem is that what users are getting at reddit isn't worth all that much and can easily be found in other places online. The second problem is that due to what it is, reddit attracts a greater level of people who don't care for common monitization practices.
  - coderdude 15y ago
    I think by unruly he means that the majority of their users are either 12 years old or act like they're 12 years old. I know that they have an underground that only hangs out on sub-reddits but I would bet those users are in the minority.
  - evan_ 15y ago
    > reddit attracts a greater level of people who don't care for common monitization practices. That's a polite way of putting it. Every ad I've seen with a comments thread has people mostly slagging off the advertiser. Ads without comment threads frequently get nasty threads posted about them, which at least isn't as visible, but if I were in charge of buying ads it would make me wonder why I should continue paying to be attacked.
    - cryptoz 15y ago
      I imagine the idea is that this system should eventually lead to ads that the community actually likes - but I'll admit that doesn't seem to be happening. However, I think that most ads that reddit rages about are pretty terribe ads. For example, a recent ad for a movie (Apollo 18) was hated on because clicking on it sent you to a Facebook login page. That's no good since many people now can't learn about this movie through the ad without signing up for a different website. Another example: I think there was a recent Microsoft ad that took you an unrelated webpage. Again, that ad is no good. The community comments on these things because there have been a lot of terrible ads - ads that don't even let users learn about the product being advertised. However, it doesn't seem like this is actually leading to better ads...
    - 15y ago
mibbit 15y ago
> Also, anyone think 200mil is a bit cheap for reddit? Are they profitable yet after 6 years? I'd say 200mil is ridiculously expensive. But then we live in an age where a location based photo sharing app for dogs is probably worth a few billion to some investor.
0x12 15y ago
200 million cheap? You're kidding right? If not, what multiple of profits would you think is reasonable for an established business? What amazes me is that reddit as it is today would be valued at more than several 10's of millions.
- bane 15y ago
  Yet if it were a startup just out of the gates with some funding, I'm sure we'd be hearing about it having a mythical valuation in the high tens of billions.

yalogin 15y ago

Reddit's quality has gone down exponentially over the last year in line with the exploding traffic. So the majority crowd is probably not the cynical tech bunch anymore - translates to - it could get a little easier to monetize the traffic.

raldi 15y ago
Every time a site's traffic doubles, it also doubles the number of people saying it sucks.
- yalogin 15y ago
  Of course. I am not complaining (may be a little) but I am trying to look at it from a purely business point of view. Its good to hit critical mass, it will be more attractive for advertisers. Reddit will get users that might actually click on some ads unlike me :)
- Permit 15y ago
  That has no bearing on the truth of the statement. Personally, I have few qualms with the quality of the content on reddit. I think the subreddit subscription model the site is centered around did an excellent job at helping users weed out content they weren't interested in.
  - bh42222 15y ago
    And the reddit enhancement suite will let you block imgur posts.
unexpected 15y ago
This often comes out whenever a post about Reddit hits the front page, but I beg to disagree. I think the ratio of quality/to quantity has slid in the wrong direction, but the quality is still there - you just need to know where you look.
- bh42222 15y ago

mmmmax 15y ago

Kudos to Condé Nast for recognizing the importance of Reddit's independence over the years, and handling the acquisition properly. Aol, Microsoft and even Google could learn something from this...

Apocryphon 15y ago

How analogous is this to the HN-YC relationship?

mkramlich 15y ago

I think 90% of the time this kind of thing is done it's because they're strongly considering selling it off. The rest is just excuses and standard corporate verbage spam.