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How does / will Reddit make money? Selling ads? Harvesting data? Monthly subscriptions? Some combination of all three? I have difficulty imagining why anyb

How does / will Reddit make money? Selling ads? Harvesting data? Monthly subscriptions? Some combination of all three? I have difficulty imagining why anybody would pay a fee to join a bbs no matter how fancy it is. Might be just me as a cheap old codger. Now, they can use ai to generate posts and dispense with moderators and even posters I guess.

rgbrenner 3y ago
They do all of those things plus selling 'coins'.. and generate $500-600m/year from it.
manishsharan 3y ago
If some people are willing to pay $8 for Twitter,they will happily pay more for Reddit.
- Peanuts99 3y ago
  Reddit does have Reddit premium which is a monthly subscription but they won't even allow users who purchase that to use third party apps. That would be a sensible middle ground.
kokanee 3y ago
They sell ads, but now they also charge for API requests. Unlike most forums, a significant amount of Reddit interactions happen via the API. They have all the best communities on the internet, but their software is HORRIBLE, so the community has created all kinds of popular 3rd party clients, tools, and bots for engaging the community without having to use the god-awful Reddit software.
dahwolf 3y ago
I think this question is far more interesting than the blackout drama. It seems Reddit hasn't made a cent of profit in 15 years. That's absurd even by SV standards. Is it incompetence? Not a priority because the focus was always on growth? Or just difficult/impossible as nobody wants to pay for anything and block ads? I don't know the answer, but the answer matters. Both in this strike and the Stackoverflow strike many people are dropping claims that the company only cares about money. Those claims make little sense to me when the companies is making a loss. You could have very valid reasons to strike, but you're striking against a company in financial trouble, facing an existential AI threat, and an advertiser pullback.
- deely3 3y ago
  > Reddit earned a $456.38 million in revenue in 2021 from ads and premium user subscriptions. Im curious about spending..
  - snuxoll 3y ago
    Like so many other startup darlings, probably has a matching 9 figure AWS bill from their over-engineered ball of yarn that nobody has bothered doing any cost/performance optimization on.
    - Prickle 3y ago
      Reddit hired like crazy during covid. They went from 700 globally (600 in the USA) to 2000 employees. There are likely costs associated with this.

rgbrenner 3y ago

They do all of those things plus selling 'coins'.. and generate $500-600m/year from it.

manishsharan 3y ago

If some people are willing to pay $8 for Twitter,they will happily pay more for Reddit.

Peanuts99 3y ago
Reddit does have Reddit premium which is a monthly subscription but they won't even allow users who purchase that to use third party apps. That would be a sensible middle ground.

kokanee 3y ago

They sell ads, but now they also charge for API requests. Unlike most forums, a significant amount of Reddit interactions happen via the API. They have all the best communities on the internet, but their software is HORRIBLE, so the community has created all kinds of popular 3rd party clients, tools, and bots for engaging the community without having to use the god-awful Reddit software.

dahwolf 3y ago

I think this question is far more interesting than the blackout drama. It seems Reddit hasn't made a cent of profit in 15 years. That's absurd even by SV standards. Is it incompetence? Not a priority because the focus was always on growth? Or just difficult/impossible as nobody wants to pay for anything and block ads? I don't know the answer, but the answer matters. Both in this strike and the Stackoverflow strike many people are dropping claims that the company only cares about money. Those claims make little sense to me when the companies is making a loss. You could have very valid reasons to strike, but you're striking against a company in financial trouble, facing an existential AI threat, and an advertiser pullback.

deely3 3y ago
> Reddit earned a $456.38 million in revenue in 2021 from ads and premium user subscriptions. Im curious about spending..
- snuxoll 3y ago
  Like so many other startup darlings, probably has a matching 9 figure AWS bill from their over-engineered ball of yarn that nobody has bothered doing any cost/performance optimization on.
  - Prickle 3y ago
    Reddit hired like crazy during covid. They went from 700 globally (600 in the USA) to 2000 employees. There are likely costs associated with this.