14 ms·

Reddit to Give 10% of Its 2014 Ad Revenue to Non-Profits Picked by Its Users

232 points by ruchir_21hj 13y ago

chrisblackwell 13y ago
So a not yet profitable site is going to start giving away revenue. Very happy I'm not an investor in that company.
- lukasm 13y ago
  Let me rephrase that "So a not yet profitable site is going to spend 10% of a new form of marketing. Very not happy I'm not an investor in that company" :)
  - chrisblackwell 13y ago
    You make some good points, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
  - incision 13y ago
    >"... spend 10% of a new form of marketing..." Exactly. Seems a big part of the Reddit appeal is the love for feeling a part of the collective. All at once this reinforces that sense, lends a suggestion of passive nobility to using the site and pre-emptively defends an increase in advertising. I expect they'll also see some jump in guilt tripping by the community around adblocking as well.
    - rhizome 13y ago
      That's a heck of a strawman.
    - lelandbatey 13y ago
      There are already ads on reddit that say "Thanks for not using adblock." Though they may get more blatant as time passes.
      - incision 13y ago
        I'm thinking more among the community than from Reddit directly. You already see a fair bit of that kind of peer pressure in some circles [0][1]. 0: http://www.reddit.com/r/CoDCompetitive/comments/1ssvjm/if_you_really_support_esports_subscribe_or_dont/ http://www.reddit.com/r/CoDCompetitive/comments/1ssvjm/if_yo... 1: http://www.reddit.com/r/nerdcubed/comments/1w2h95/adblock_discussion/ http://www.reddit.com/r/nerdcubed/comments/1w2h95/adblock_di...
      - MarkTee 13y ago
        Making them any more blatant isn't going to do much good, seeing as those who block ads won't be able to see them.
    - ksk 13y ago
      I'm certain the non-profits who receive the money don't care about what it "seems" to anyone.
  - jamestanderson 13y ago
    >Very not happy I'm not an investor in that company So you want to be an investor now?
- slariviere 13y ago
  It's only for the ad revenue. I'm guessing this is a small part of their revenue compared to reddit gold.
  - Shivetya 13y ago
    Is reddit gold all that much? I could imagine a surge when it came out, but how about ongoing?
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - mahranch 13y ago
      http://www.reddit.com/gilded http://www.reddit.com/gilded You can see "gilded" comments in real time. Gilded is when one user gives a month of reddit gold to another user (it doesn't include people buying it for themselves). I'd say it's most definitely a success.
    - nandhp 13y ago
      They have a "gold goal" progress meter at the bottom of the homepage sidebar. I assume this is approximately "amount of gold purchases needed to keep us from losing money today" -- it's usually above 80%; yesterday it was 107%.
    - njr123 13y ago
      About $50k a month. http://gold.reddit-stream.com http://gold.reddit-stream.com
      - theknown99 13y ago
        So about 2% of their hosting bill...
      - rhc2104 13y ago
        That page says, "These numbers only include gifted gold"
- seiji 13y ago
  Reminder: "profit" is left over money. Profit means you've paid all your expenses (including people's salaries), and you still have money left over. You can be not-profitable forever and still have a working company. In fact, some organizations are even specifically set up to be "not profitable."
  - chrisblackwell 13y ago
    Not-for profit companies have profit, they just redistribute the profits at the end. Any company that never has profit is doomed to fail.
    - RussianCow 13y ago
      By definition, not-for-profit companies don't make a profit. If your company's expenses are always as high as its revenues, then the company can survive forever. So I don't see what your point is.
      - bradleyjg 13y ago
        A lot of them pay supra-market salaries to certain employees with ties to the handpicked, perpetual, unaccountable board. Although nominally non-profits such corporations are fairly indistinguishable from partnerships.
      - gojomo 13y ago
        At least in the US, non-profits may make a profit, it's just that they can't have owners who receive the profits (or managers/insiders who receive undue compensation). Any profits must remain within the organization and dedicated to its mission. (Although "non-profit" is the common name, in this sense it's better to think of it as shorthand for "not for profit", meaning that achieving financial profits for its owners/insiders is not its legal purpose.) See also: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/taxes-nonprofit-corporation-earnings-30284.html https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/taxes-nonprofit-corp...
        13y ago
- humanrebar 13y ago
  In theory, if they can get enough people to stop blocking reddit ads, it might actually increase ad revenues. I guess we'll see if that actually works.
  - pan69 13y ago
    Sounds like a rock solid business plan. If they could only persuade people...
  - HannibalLecter 13y ago
    Whenever a business isn't sure if something will work, you know that model is doomed.
  - theknown99 13y ago
    IMHO, the type of person who installs adblock isn't the type of person you can sell things to easily. They're decidedly anti-mainstream, anti-corporate, probably not particularly rich, etc. So it's not just a matter of convincing their userbase to stop blocking ads, you'd need to tell their current userbase to go away, and invite a better userbase to come and click on ads. Reddit created this problem by fostering a culture of anti advertising early on. Reddit should probably just become some non-profit foundation like wikipedia and show begging adverts.
    - nwh 13y ago
      > IMHO, the type of person who installs adblock isn't the type of person you can sell things to easily. They're decidedly anti-mainstream, anti-corporate, probably not particularly rich, etc. [citation needed] Could just be that the people installing AdBlock don't like being distracted by multitudes of flashing popover and automatically playing videos. I doubt it's anything to do with being anti-mainstream or anti-corporate.
    - coderdude 13y ago
      They should focus their efforts on redditgifts (http://redditgifts.com/ http://redditgifts.com/) and consider putting it on the main site instead of on a separate domain. Their users may not like to buy mainstream products but they definitely like to buy quirky, off-the-wall things as evidenced by `Shut Up And Take My Money`'s success with advertising on Reddit. They've already got the right idea with the marketplace model. They should (if they're not already) focus on trying to attract unique products through a program similar to Steam's Greenlight and stop focusing so much on advertising. Advertising and Redditors -- generally speaking -- are not a good match.
- theknown99 13y ago
  If Reddit ever became profitable, I think their userbase would revolt. The average Redditor is pretty anti-corporate, anti-rich, anti-profit, etc etc. It's more in line with wikipedia.
  - seunosewa 13y ago
    That's apparently what reddit thinks, but they are wrong.
- logicallee 13y ago
  Obviously, if it were profitable then revenues would have to be substantial - above total operating costs. Any percentage of that would be a massive expenditure. Whereas if it is not yet profitable, then revenue could be tiny - i.e. you might be 'vetoing' (with your comment) a $50 expenditure that serves to generate huge amounts of free advertising and goodwill for Reddit. Frankly with this level of analysis, it would surprise me greatly to learn that you have any money remaining to invest.
- commander_ahab 13y ago
  Probably not ideal given it's financial situation, but the userbase may respond positively, and that could have a proportionate benefit that outweighs the negative.
- cJ0th 13y ago
  They might be onto something. I guess many users consider Reddit a trustworthy and ethical company. Such a move only strengthens this image. This in turn makes their users very faithful (as long as they manage to live up their image) If they manage to (directly or indirectly) sell a no-bullshit product/service that appeals to their users then they are going to be a very successful company. (What's more, trust is a "resource" potential competitors can not easily imitate) Sure, they haven't really found anything yet but building up trust will capitalize if the right product/service is found. If there really exists is no such product then our whole society would have quite some serious flaws ...
josh-wrale 13y ago
I wonder if it will be the EFF... ;-) http://www.salon.com/2014/02/28/why_reddit_moderators_are_censoring_glenn_greenwalds_latest_bombshell_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2014/02/28/why_reddit_moderators_are_ce...
- cratermoon 13y ago
  Is the NRA a non-profit? That's the sort of place I see redditors shooting for.
- superbaconman 13y ago
  I'd be good enough if redditors just split it between the EFF and the NRA.
tehwebguy 13y ago
This is cool, I wonder why they are using part of the ad rev though. Advertisers want to advertise no matter what, like it's _basically_ just a formula for $ <-> traffic. But I'll bet users would be more pumped to buy each other reddit gold if part of that purchase went to charity.
- ddorian43 13y ago
  also disable ad-blockers
- humanrebar 13y ago
  It sounds like it's to provide an incentive to stop blocking reddit ads.
- hu_me 13y ago
  its a good idea, making users supportive of advertising by giving some of it to charity. Now people with adblockers might more inclined to add reddit to whitelist.
- pekk 13y ago
  If I want to buy someone Reddit Gold, I can easily spend an extra $2 or whatever I want on donating to cause du jour. Having that bundled into Reddit Gold is useless and actually counter-productive, because if Reddit donates to a cause I disagree with I now actually don't WANT to buy Reddit Gold.
tharri 13y ago
Reddit has ads?
- romanovcode 13y ago
  Yes, if you remove AdBlock (or similar) you'll see them. Also it has plenty of hidden adds crafted as submissions.
  - SavvyGuard 13y ago
    As a member of the ad tech community, they're known as native ads and are the hottest thing in the business right now.
    - crazypyro 13y ago
      And 75%* of the companies that buy ads on Reddit end up with negative comments in the ads and end up turning commenting off. *Not a fact, just my experience.
      - theknown99 13y ago
        I've never understood advertising on Reddit. It's basically a very anti-advertising community, who will very likely be hostile to your product/service.
        antsar 13y ago
        That seems to vary between subreddits. I've encountered a few quite successful ads (with comments from regular visitors to the sub further supporting the product!). /r/sysadmin comes to mind, but I'm sure there are others.
        kissickas 13y ago
        XX (or is it Dos Equis) and Oldspice would beg to differ, and they didn't even advertise there. I've found reddit to be rather accepting of advertising as long as it is done transparently. IAMAs by celebrities every time they star in a new movie aren't treated with hostility - just put the fact that you're in a new film in the submission text. There have been many HN posts and comments about successful paid ads in specialized communities.
pxlpshr 13y ago
Does anyone else feel like this is extremely suspicious (classic misdirection) given the negativity surrounding the moderation of Snowden's latest leak?
- bfish510 13y ago
  A decision like this isn't made over night.
  - Crito 13y ago
    Presumably they were not blindsided by these 'revelations' overnight either.
- untog 13y ago
  Are you serious? Of course it isn't. Not everything is a conspiracy theory, you know. That was to to do with the moderators of /r/news and nothing to do with Reddit itself.
  - pxlpshr 13y ago
    I'm willing to believe both sides of the coin now. Traditionally, I'm not a tin foil hat kinda guy. I proposed a question that I thought was worth discussing considering the leaked presentation which highlights the psychological theater orchestrated by our government on a regular basis. Admittedly, I'm not nose-deep in all of the Snowden/Reddit drama either.
  - MisterWebz 13y ago
    A company is trying to get some good press after a lot of bad press. Must be some kind of conspiracy theory, right?
    - Crito 13y ago
      If I haven't already read about it in the newspaper, then it must be a loony conspiracy theory. /s
- 13y ago
gesman 13y ago
Non-profit == noble cause?
- pekk 13y ago
  Not at all. Further, Reddit forms hiveminds with strongly idiosyncratic opinions that squeeze out other valid views, and it's likely one of these which is going to determine the direction of donations.
izzydata 13y ago
Ad revenue needs to die as a business model for websites. I will continue to block all ads on all websites because I can and they are ugly.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  Reddit Gold is a fine way to contribute to the company. I salute you.
  - izzydata 13y ago
    I've never been to Reddit. Thanks though.
    - dkrich 13y ago
      Do you find it somewhat presumptuous to argue against the business model of a business you've never visited?
      - izzydata 13y ago
        I'm pretty confident Reddit isn't the only website that uses ads to make money.
        DanBC 13y ago
        Reddit gold is not ads.
    - JacobDemsky 13y ago
      That's like saying you've never watched porn. Nice try pretending to be some kind of elitist though.
      - izzydata 13y ago
        Not trying to be elitest. I just don't visit reddit. If I did and enjoyed the experience I'd pay for some service such as Reddit gold. Which mind you was my first visit to Reddit to learn what it was.
tedchs 13y ago
And down goes the click-through validity rate.
jordigh 13y ago
I'm always suspicious of people proudly announcing that they're giving something to charity. We already have a system in place for every organisation to give part of their money for the public good: taxes. As a democratic society, supposedly we already have mechanisms in place to decide how to spend this money for the public good. Why, then, is it laudable if an org decides to give to charity instead of paying taxes? This takes the decision of how to spend for the public good away from the public and instead the company decides. Is it because in practice we distrust the government and our decision-making procedures too much and we trust private companies more?
- nazgulnarsil 13y ago
  Taxes mostly go towards the welfare state. This is only an effective use of your money if you believe imaginary lines on a map make some people's quality of life more important than others.
  - monkeyspaw 13y ago
    This is easily disprovable, via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budget http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budg...
    - ivanca 13y ago
      "Disprovable" in the sense that's how it looks on paper, but like you may know the USA "Department of Health and Human Services" is extremely corrupted and most of it is wasted thanks to an overpriced health system. Many European countries suffer as well from corruption in this area but USA levels of corruption are still unmatched (http://epianalysis.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/usversuseurope/ http://epianalysis.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/usversuseurope/)
- lutusp 13y ago
  > We already have a system in place for every organisation to give part of their money for the public good: taxes. Yes, but without any personal discretion or choice. For example, I personally think a woman's access to birth control and abortion is an essential right, but because this is by no means a popular viewpoint, I donate directly to charities that support my views. Taxes aren't a way to support specific, desirable public goals, they only maintain the status quo. If your view had merit, Bill Gates would try to pay taxes to encourage redesign of condoms to improve Third World family planning outcomes (one of Gates' current projects). But Gates knows this won't work -- as far as a vocal minority of American are concerned, family planning is the work of the devil. > As a democratic society, supposedly we already have mechanisms in place to decide how to spend this money for the public good. You have a distorted idea of democracy. Democracy is not a centralized decision-making process in which various views are amalgamated into a single choice of action for all. Not to oversimplify, but democracy respects the rights of individuals and diverse groups to act in a way that doesn't interfere with any other group's similar rights. On this basis, private charity accurately represents democracy much better than centralized taxation does.
pekk 13y ago
This is a double-edged move. I will boycott Reddit if it donates to non-profits I do not wish to support.
ef47d35620c1 13y ago
That's very cool. Allowing the users to have meaningful input will really set them apart. I don't do reddit much, but this is very noble and generous of them!
- gatehouse 13y ago
  Yeah, unless the users choose charities that alienate other users. Is your pageview going the planned parenthood or the NRA? Berkshire Hathaway discontinued their shareholder directed charity because some (vocal) people disapproved of the choices: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/jul0303.pdf http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/jul0303.pdf Anyway I wish them the best but I hope they know what they're getting into.
  - georgemcbay 13y ago
    They do seem to be thinking about exactly the sorts of problems you are talking about. Not quite clear in the techcrunch blurb, but more explicitly stated in the actual reddit blog post: http://www.redditblog.com/2014/02/decimating-our-ads-revenue.html http://www.redditblog.com/2014/02/decimating-our-ads-revenue...
  - humanrebar 13y ago
    I hadn't thought of that before. If charities like Planned Parenthood (apropos the Berkshire Hathaway situation) or the WinShape Foundation (remember the Chick-fil-A incident?) are on the table, there could be controversy.
smartistone 13y ago
A very close minded place. Original opinion and ideas are quickly downvoted with nary a rhyme or reason ,except that someone was offended but couldn't be bothered to elaborate. Wouldn't give em' a dime
rando289 13y ago
Link: company x gives to charity, 5 hours ago. 4 comments responding directly to the link, 3/4 negative. 117 comments responding to randomAnonymousUser[1-4]. (Internet (Hacker News)) culture at its finest.
starmanjones 13y ago
looks like the corporate sellouts at reddit are trying to rehabilitate their image because of recent disclosures on other websites of how reddit is paid to disseminate propaganda and hide certain news stories. This story is propaganda.
vonklaus 13y ago
isn't reddit a non-profit?
ChrisNorstrom 13y ago
Right... that's not going to trick us into advertising on Reddit again, which is one of the biggest wastes of ad dollars out there. You couldn't sell Makeup to the /r/makeup forum. They just don't click on ads, let alone buy anything. We joked about how you're probably better off advertising on a gay porn blog. I actually tried it. And I got more sales than on Reddit. I've tried 3 separate times and all three were wastes, I've read articles about others trying and they found it to be a waste as well. They're doing this to try to get their (often stereotyped as snarky and condescending) users to click on ads for the "good of the world". It won't matter because their audience's clicks don't convert into sales.
- simias 13y ago
  I sometimes browse the frontpage of reddit and I feel like the best way to advertise there is by making "real" submissions. I've seen quite a lot of highly upvoted submissions like "look what my girlfriend got me!" linking to a picture of some "geeky" product. Maybe I'm a bit cynical but I can't help thinking 80% of them are just marketing in disguise. Also, you don't even have to pay to submit those stories. I'm not sure how reddit could solve this problem.
paulhauggis 13y ago
This move is so people on Reddit stop using ad blockers, which is clearly effecting their bottom line. I don't think it will work, since Reddit already uses non-intrusive ads and the majority of people block ads on principal alone. Users don't want ads (because it's somehow intruding on your space), nobody would be willing to pay for the site, and Reddit gold was seen as class warfare (haves and have nots). Anything that even seems like Reddit wants to bring in money is shunned immediately by the user base. Like most anti-capitalist Utopian groups, it's doomed.
- CaptainSwing 13y ago
  Can we infer from this that using ad-block is a form of low intensity class war? I (as an ad-block user) like this idea. I think that its perhaps a bit of a stretch to call reddit an 'anti-capitalist' group, but for sure the capitalists are failing to find a way to extract profit from it, and this itself really interesting Like other 'social media' (in the broad sense) enterprises reddit uses the products of users unpaid labour to reach an audience, and it attempts to make a profit from selling this audience to advertisers. Unfortunately for those wanting to profit from reddit, its strong community is resistant to being exploited in this manner. Im not claiming here that all or even most reddit users are 'anti-capitalists', or directly opposed to the profit making of reddit, but simply that there is not (or has not yet ben discovered) a means of adequately monetising its community which doesn't give the effect of taking control from said community, and things like the revolt against reddit gold and the use of ad-block are movements in this struggle over ownership. I dont, personally, see any resolution to this impasse which maintains both a profit for reddit and the autonomy and control desired by the reddit community, and in this we are in some sort of agreement. The two are irreconcilable. I would choose to back the other horse though.

232 points by ruchir_21hj 13y ago

chrisblackwell 13y ago

So a not yet profitable site is going to start giving away revenue. Very happy I'm not an investor in that company.

lukasm 13y ago
Let me rephrase that "So a not yet profitable site is going to spend 10% of a new form of marketing. Very not happy I'm not an investor in that company" :)
- chrisblackwell 13y ago
  You make some good points, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
- incision 13y ago
  >"... spend 10% of a new form of marketing..." Exactly. Seems a big part of the Reddit appeal is the love for feeling a part of the collective. All at once this reinforces that sense, lends a suggestion of passive nobility to using the site and pre-emptively defends an increase in advertising. I expect they'll also see some jump in guilt tripping by the community around adblocking as well.
  - rhizome 13y ago
    That's a heck of a strawman.
  - lelandbatey 13y ago
    There are already ads on reddit that say "Thanks for not using adblock." Though they may get more blatant as time passes.
    - incision 13y ago
      I'm thinking more among the community than from Reddit directly. You already see a fair bit of that kind of peer pressure in some circles [0][1]. 0: http://www.reddit.com/r/CoDCompetitive/comments/1ssvjm/if_you_really_support_esports_subscribe_or_dont/ http://www.reddit.com/r/CoDCompetitive/comments/1ssvjm/if_yo... 1: http://www.reddit.com/r/nerdcubed/comments/1w2h95/adblock_discussion/ http://www.reddit.com/r/nerdcubed/comments/1w2h95/adblock_di...
    - MarkTee 13y ago
      Making them any more blatant isn't going to do much good, seeing as those who block ads won't be able to see them.
  - ksk 13y ago
    I'm certain the non-profits who receive the money don't care about what it "seems" to anyone.
- jamestanderson 13y ago
  >Very not happy I'm not an investor in that company So you want to be an investor now?
slariviere 13y ago
It's only for the ad revenue. I'm guessing this is a small part of their revenue compared to reddit gold.
- Shivetya 13y ago
  Is reddit gold all that much? I could imagine a surge when it came out, but how about ongoing?
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - mahranch 13y ago
    http://www.reddit.com/gilded http://www.reddit.com/gilded You can see "gilded" comments in real time. Gilded is when one user gives a month of reddit gold to another user (it doesn't include people buying it for themselves). I'd say it's most definitely a success.
  - nandhp 13y ago
    They have a "gold goal" progress meter at the bottom of the homepage sidebar. I assume this is approximately "amount of gold purchases needed to keep us from losing money today" -- it's usually above 80%; yesterday it was 107%.
  - njr123 13y ago
    About $50k a month. http://gold.reddit-stream.com http://gold.reddit-stream.com
    - theknown99 13y ago
      So about 2% of their hosting bill...
    - rhc2104 13y ago
      That page says, "These numbers only include gifted gold"
seiji 13y ago
Reminder: "profit" is left over money. Profit means you've paid all your expenses (including people's salaries), and you still have money left over. You can be not-profitable forever and still have a working company. In fact, some organizations are even specifically set up to be "not profitable."
- chrisblackwell 13y ago
  Not-for profit companies have profit, they just redistribute the profits at the end. Any company that never has profit is doomed to fail.
  - RussianCow 13y ago
    By definition, not-for-profit companies don't make a profit. If your company's expenses are always as high as its revenues, then the company can survive forever. So I don't see what your point is.
    - bradleyjg 13y ago
      A lot of them pay supra-market salaries to certain employees with ties to the handpicked, perpetual, unaccountable board. Although nominally non-profits such corporations are fairly indistinguishable from partnerships.
    - gojomo 13y ago
      At least in the US, non-profits may make a profit, it's just that they can't have owners who receive the profits (or managers/insiders who receive undue compensation). Any profits must remain within the organization and dedicated to its mission. (Although "non-profit" is the common name, in this sense it's better to think of it as shorthand for "not for profit", meaning that achieving financial profits for its owners/insiders is not its legal purpose.) See also: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/taxes-nonprofit-corporation-earnings-30284.html https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/taxes-nonprofit-corp...
      - 13y ago
humanrebar 13y ago
In theory, if they can get enough people to stop blocking reddit ads, it might actually increase ad revenues. I guess we'll see if that actually works.
- pan69 13y ago
  Sounds like a rock solid business plan. If they could only persuade people...
- HannibalLecter 13y ago
  Whenever a business isn't sure if something will work, you know that model is doomed.
- theknown99 13y ago
  IMHO, the type of person who installs adblock isn't the type of person you can sell things to easily. They're decidedly anti-mainstream, anti-corporate, probably not particularly rich, etc. So it's not just a matter of convincing their userbase to stop blocking ads, you'd need to tell their current userbase to go away, and invite a better userbase to come and click on ads. Reddit created this problem by fostering a culture of anti advertising early on. Reddit should probably just become some non-profit foundation like wikipedia and show begging adverts.
  - nwh 13y ago
    > IMHO, the type of person who installs adblock isn't the type of person you can sell things to easily. They're decidedly anti-mainstream, anti-corporate, probably not particularly rich, etc. [citation needed] Could just be that the people installing AdBlock don't like being distracted by multitudes of flashing popover and automatically playing videos. I doubt it's anything to do with being anti-mainstream or anti-corporate.
  - coderdude 13y ago
    They should focus their efforts on redditgifts (http://redditgifts.com/ http://redditgifts.com/) and consider putting it on the main site instead of on a separate domain. Their users may not like to buy mainstream products but they definitely like to buy quirky, off-the-wall things as evidenced by `Shut Up And Take My Money`'s success with advertising on Reddit. They've already got the right idea with the marketplace model. They should (if they're not already) focus on trying to attract unique products through a program similar to Steam's Greenlight and stop focusing so much on advertising. Advertising and Redditors -- generally speaking -- are not a good match.
theknown99 13y ago
If Reddit ever became profitable, I think their userbase would revolt. The average Redditor is pretty anti-corporate, anti-rich, anti-profit, etc etc. It's more in line with wikipedia.
- seunosewa 13y ago
  That's apparently what reddit thinks, but they are wrong.
logicallee 13y ago
Obviously, if it were profitable then revenues would have to be substantial - above total operating costs. Any percentage of that would be a massive expenditure. Whereas if it is not yet profitable, then revenue could be tiny - i.e. you might be 'vetoing' (with your comment) a $50 expenditure that serves to generate huge amounts of free advertising and goodwill for Reddit. Frankly with this level of analysis, it would surprise me greatly to learn that you have any money remaining to invest.
commander_ahab 13y ago
Probably not ideal given it's financial situation, but the userbase may respond positively, and that could have a proportionate benefit that outweighs the negative.
cJ0th 13y ago
They might be onto something. I guess many users consider Reddit a trustworthy and ethical company. Such a move only strengthens this image. This in turn makes their users very faithful (as long as they manage to live up their image) If they manage to (directly or indirectly) sell a no-bullshit product/service that appeals to their users then they are going to be a very successful company. (What's more, trust is a "resource" potential competitors can not easily imitate) Sure, they haven't really found anything yet but building up trust will capitalize if the right product/service is found. If there really exists is no such product then our whole society would have quite some serious flaws ...

josh-wrale 13y ago

I wonder if it will be the EFF... ;-) http://www.salon.com/2014/02/28/why_reddit_moderators_are_censoring_glenn_greenwalds_latest_bombshell_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2014/02/28/why_reddit_moderators_are_ce...

cratermoon 13y ago
Is the NRA a non-profit? That's the sort of place I see redditors shooting for.
superbaconman 13y ago
I'd be good enough if redditors just split it between the EFF and the NRA.

tehwebguy 13y ago

This is cool, I wonder why they are using part of the ad rev though. Advertisers want to advertise no matter what, like it's _basically_ just a formula for $ <-> traffic. But I'll bet users would be more pumped to buy each other reddit gold if part of that purchase went to charity.

ddorian43 13y ago
also disable ad-blockers
humanrebar 13y ago
It sounds like it's to provide an incentive to stop blocking reddit ads.
hu_me 13y ago
its a good idea, making users supportive of advertising by giving some of it to charity. Now people with adblockers might more inclined to add reddit to whitelist.
pekk 13y ago
If I want to buy someone Reddit Gold, I can easily spend an extra $2 or whatever I want on donating to cause du jour. Having that bundled into Reddit Gold is useless and actually counter-productive, because if Reddit donates to a cause I disagree with I now actually don't WANT to buy Reddit Gold.

tharri 13y ago

Reddit has ads?

romanovcode 13y ago
Yes, if you remove AdBlock (or similar) you'll see them. Also it has plenty of hidden adds crafted as submissions.
- SavvyGuard 13y ago
  As a member of the ad tech community, they're known as native ads and are the hottest thing in the business right now.
  - crazypyro 13y ago
    And 75%* of the companies that buy ads on Reddit end up with negative comments in the ads and end up turning commenting off. *Not a fact, just my experience.
    - theknown99 13y ago
      I've never understood advertising on Reddit. It's basically a very anti-advertising community, who will very likely be hostile to your product/service.
      - antsar 13y ago
        That seems to vary between subreddits. I've encountered a few quite successful ads (with comments from regular visitors to the sub further supporting the product!). /r/sysadmin comes to mind, but I'm sure there are others.
      - kissickas 13y ago
        XX (or is it Dos Equis) and Oldspice would beg to differ, and they didn't even advertise there. I've found reddit to be rather accepting of advertising as long as it is done transparently. IAMAs by celebrities every time they star in a new movie aren't treated with hostility - just put the fact that you're in a new film in the submission text. There have been many HN posts and comments about successful paid ads in specialized communities.

pxlpshr 13y ago

Does anyone else feel like this is extremely suspicious (classic misdirection) given the negativity surrounding the moderation of Snowden's latest leak?

bfish510 13y ago
A decision like this isn't made over night.
- Crito 13y ago
  Presumably they were not blindsided by these 'revelations' overnight either.
untog 13y ago
Are you serious? Of course it isn't. Not everything is a conspiracy theory, you know. That was to to do with the moderators of /r/news and nothing to do with Reddit itself.
- pxlpshr 13y ago
  I'm willing to believe both sides of the coin now. Traditionally, I'm not a tin foil hat kinda guy. I proposed a question that I thought was worth discussing considering the leaked presentation which highlights the psychological theater orchestrated by our government on a regular basis. Admittedly, I'm not nose-deep in all of the Snowden/Reddit drama either.
- MisterWebz 13y ago
  A company is trying to get some good press after a lot of bad press. Must be some kind of conspiracy theory, right?
  - Crito 13y ago
    If I haven't already read about it in the newspaper, then it must be a loony conspiracy theory. /s
13y ago

gesman 13y ago

Non-profit == noble cause?

pekk 13y ago
Not at all. Further, Reddit forms hiveminds with strongly idiosyncratic opinions that squeeze out other valid views, and it's likely one of these which is going to determine the direction of donations.

izzydata 13y ago

Ad revenue needs to die as a business model for websites. I will continue to block all ads on all websites because I can and they are ugly.

jamesaguilar 13y ago
Reddit Gold is a fine way to contribute to the company. I salute you.
- izzydata 13y ago
  I've never been to Reddit. Thanks though.
  - dkrich 13y ago
    Do you find it somewhat presumptuous to argue against the business model of a business you've never visited?
    - izzydata 13y ago
      I'm pretty confident Reddit isn't the only website that uses ads to make money.
      - DanBC 13y ago
        Reddit gold is not ads.
  - JacobDemsky 13y ago
    That's like saying you've never watched porn. Nice try pretending to be some kind of elitist though.
    - izzydata 13y ago
      Not trying to be elitest. I just don't visit reddit. If I did and enjoyed the experience I'd pay for some service such as Reddit gold. Which mind you was my first visit to Reddit to learn what it was.

tedchs 13y ago

And down goes the click-through validity rate.

jordigh 13y ago

I'm always suspicious of people proudly announcing that they're giving something to charity. We already have a system in place for every organisation to give part of their money for the public good: taxes. As a democratic society, supposedly we already have mechanisms in place to decide how to spend this money for the public good. Why, then, is it laudable if an org decides to give to charity instead of paying taxes? This takes the decision of how to spend for the public good away from the public and instead the company decides. Is it because in practice we distrust the government and our decision-making procedures too much and we trust private companies more?

nazgulnarsil 13y ago
Taxes mostly go towards the welfare state. This is only an effective use of your money if you believe imaginary lines on a map make some people's quality of life more important than others.
- monkeyspaw 13y ago
  This is easily disprovable, via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budget http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_United_States_federal_budg...
  - ivanca 13y ago
    "Disprovable" in the sense that's how it looks on paper, but like you may know the USA "Department of Health and Human Services" is extremely corrupted and most of it is wasted thanks to an overpriced health system. Many European countries suffer as well from corruption in this area but USA levels of corruption are still unmatched (http://epianalysis.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/usversuseurope/ http://epianalysis.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/usversuseurope/)
lutusp 13y ago
> We already have a system in place for every organisation to give part of their money for the public good: taxes. Yes, but without any personal discretion or choice. For example, I personally think a woman's access to birth control and abortion is an essential right, but because this is by no means a popular viewpoint, I donate directly to charities that support my views. Taxes aren't a way to support specific, desirable public goals, they only maintain the status quo. If your view had merit, Bill Gates would try to pay taxes to encourage redesign of condoms to improve Third World family planning outcomes (one of Gates' current projects). But Gates knows this won't work -- as far as a vocal minority of American are concerned, family planning is the work of the devil. > As a democratic society, supposedly we already have mechanisms in place to decide how to spend this money for the public good. You have a distorted idea of democracy. Democracy is not a centralized decision-making process in which various views are amalgamated into a single choice of action for all. Not to oversimplify, but democracy respects the rights of individuals and diverse groups to act in a way that doesn't interfere with any other group's similar rights. On this basis, private charity accurately represents democracy much better than centralized taxation does.

pekk 13y ago

This is a double-edged move. I will boycott Reddit if it donates to non-profits I do not wish to support.

ef47d35620c1 13y ago

That's very cool. Allowing the users to have meaningful input will really set them apart. I don't do reddit much, but this is very noble and generous of them!

gatehouse 13y ago
Yeah, unless the users choose charities that alienate other users. Is your pageview going the planned parenthood or the NRA? Berkshire Hathaway discontinued their shareholder directed charity because some (vocal) people disapproved of the choices: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/jul0303.pdf http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/news/jul0303.pdf Anyway I wish them the best but I hope they know what they're getting into.
- georgemcbay 13y ago
  They do seem to be thinking about exactly the sorts of problems you are talking about. Not quite clear in the techcrunch blurb, but more explicitly stated in the actual reddit blog post: http://www.redditblog.com/2014/02/decimating-our-ads-revenue.html http://www.redditblog.com/2014/02/decimating-our-ads-revenue...
- humanrebar 13y ago
  I hadn't thought of that before. If charities like Planned Parenthood (apropos the Berkshire Hathaway situation) or the WinShape Foundation (remember the Chick-fil-A incident?) are on the table, there could be controversy.

smartistone 13y ago

A very close minded place. Original opinion and ideas are quickly downvoted with nary a rhyme or reason ,except that someone was offended but couldn't be bothered to elaborate. Wouldn't give em' a dime

rando289 13y ago

Link: company x gives to charity, 5 hours ago. 4 comments responding directly to the link, 3/4 negative. 117 comments responding to randomAnonymousUser[1-4]. (Internet (Hacker News)) culture at its finest.

starmanjones 13y ago

looks like the corporate sellouts at reddit are trying to rehabilitate their image because of recent disclosures on other websites of how reddit is paid to disseminate propaganda and hide certain news stories. This story is propaganda.

vonklaus 13y ago

isn't reddit a non-profit?

ChrisNorstrom 13y ago

Right... that's not going to trick us into advertising on Reddit again, which is one of the biggest wastes of ad dollars out there. You couldn't sell Makeup to the /r/makeup forum. They just don't click on ads, let alone buy anything. We joked about how you're probably better off advertising on a gay porn blog. I actually tried it. And I got more sales than on Reddit. I've tried 3 separate times and all three were wastes, I've read articles about others trying and they found it to be a waste as well. They're doing this to try to get their (often stereotyped as snarky and condescending) users to click on ads for the "good of the world". It won't matter because their audience's clicks don't convert into sales.

simias 13y ago
I sometimes browse the frontpage of reddit and I feel like the best way to advertise there is by making "real" submissions. I've seen quite a lot of highly upvoted submissions like "look what my girlfriend got me!" linking to a picture of some "geeky" product. Maybe I'm a bit cynical but I can't help thinking 80% of them are just marketing in disguise. Also, you don't even have to pay to submit those stories. I'm not sure how reddit could solve this problem.

paulhauggis 13y ago

This move is so people on Reddit stop using ad blockers, which is clearly effecting their bottom line. I don't think it will work, since Reddit already uses non-intrusive ads and the majority of people block ads on principal alone. Users don't want ads (because it's somehow intruding on your space), nobody would be willing to pay for the site, and Reddit gold was seen as class warfare (haves and have nots). Anything that even seems like Reddit wants to bring in money is shunned immediately by the user base. Like most anti-capitalist Utopian groups, it's doomed.

CaptainSwing 13y ago
Can we infer from this that using ad-block is a form of low intensity class war? I (as an ad-block user) like this idea. I think that its perhaps a bit of a stretch to call reddit an 'anti-capitalist' group, but for sure the capitalists are failing to find a way to extract profit from it, and this itself really interesting Like other 'social media' (in the broad sense) enterprises reddit uses the products of users unpaid labour to reach an audience, and it attempts to make a profit from selling this audience to advertisers. Unfortunately for those wanting to profit from reddit, its strong community is resistant to being exploited in this manner. Im not claiming here that all or even most reddit users are 'anti-capitalists', or directly opposed to the profit making of reddit, but simply that there is not (or has not yet ben discovered) a means of adequately monetising its community which doesn't give the effect of taking control from said community, and things like the revolt against reddit gold and the use of ad-block are movements in this struggle over ownership. I dont, personally, see any resolution to this impasse which maintains both a profit for reddit and the autonomy and control desired by the reddit community, and in this we are in some sort of agreement. The two are irreconcilable. I would choose to back the other horse though.