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The Reddit community is not the customer. They're the product. It's just like Facebook or Twitter or any other social media website. Think about the real, cold-

The Reddit community is not the customer. They're the product. It's just like Facebook or Twitter or any other social media website. Think about the real, cold-blooded economics of it. Reddit can afford to piss off the community, because, even if a small number of people leave, there will still be plenty to view advertisements and the controversy and publicity may even drive more traffic. Sure, moderators can take subs dark and post long rants against the Reddit staff, but ultimately, most people WILL keep visiting the site. Reddit (the company, not the community) is NOT your friend and has no obligation to the community. Just like every other social media company out there, their fundamental goal is to make money, and serving the community isn't always aligned with that interest.

untog 11y ago
Not really. Reddit users - the ones that view the advertising - are the product. The community mods are the ones that ensure there is content to make it worth coming to the site in the first place. Without that community people will stop coming to the site.
Bjartr 11y ago
>but ultimately, most people WILL keep visiting the site. Which is why Digg is considered a such a success today right? Sure, the community is the product, but there is a breaking point where you end up losing the community.
benihana 11y ago
>The Reddit community is not the customer. They're the product. Yay, this meme again. What a silly oversimplification. Of course reddit users are customers of reddit. Reddit does not exist without their continuing visits. Their ability to create meaningful content is part of the product, along with how reddit the site actually functions. But they are in no means not customers nor the only part of the product. I'm surprised how often people on reddit say this, given what happened to Digg.
- ectoplasm 11y ago
  Customers pay for services. Advertisers are customers. The only sense in which most redditors are customers is that they pay for internet access. So (assuming you watch TV), just as you as a TV watcher are a client of your TV company and the TV advertisers are clients of the TV networks you watch, you as an internet user are a client of your ISP and internet advertisers are clients of the websites you visit. There are exceptions, when users end up paying websites directly for services or products, but this is usually how the "free to visit" internet manages to sustain itself. I wish it wasn't like that, I want to search for ads not have them delivered to me. https://www.reddit.com/advertising https://www.reddit.com/advertising
  - pixl97 11y ago
    Repeat after me: Reddit is not a content provider. Your Cable/TV company buys content and resales it to you. Reddit does not buy content. The content of Reddit is provided by, moderated by, and upvoted by the users. You can treat them like a consumer, but it is at your own peril as they quickly wander off to other sites. Social sites like Reddit do not fit nicely in to the little boxes businesses like to make when predicting profits.
    - ectoplasm 11y ago
      Oh, I think I must have miscommunicated something. I was comparing Cable/TV companies to ISPs and TV networks to websites. I agree that Reddit is not comparable to a Cable/TV company. As in, end users are customers/clients of Cable/TV companies and ISPs because they pay them money, but they do not pay TV networks and websites. Further, advertisers are customers/clients of TV networks and websites but they are not clients of Cable/TV companies and ISPs (generally speaking). The only significant claim I'm making is that social media users are not customers/clients unless they are giving money to the websites. Mostly it's advertisers giving the money. Also, I know that the content of social media websites is both created and consumed by users, but nevertheless the social media companies operate those websites, store and process the content, and provide the content created by everyone to everyone. This doesn't make the users into customers however, because they still aren't giving money to website. An analogy would be a TV show where the creators just gave the show to the network for free, and then watched it at home. Or maybe, a news station that films people's real lives and then uses that to sell ads. As for Hacker News, we are also not the customers. Maybe you could argue that investors are customers, since HN is a promotional vehicle for YC. But, that's kind of murky.
pixl97 11y ago
I think you're confused on how Reddit works. People visit Reddit because of the huge amount of content being posted, and reposted, on the site. A very small percentage of the userbase does that. If that small percentage of posters move away from Reddit a very large percentage of the 'silent majority' will follow them. Reddit has a hold of nothing. There is little cost to moving to a new site. With Facebook you will lose your personal contacts that you likely know by name, with Reddit you only really know most people by aliases. Popular things like AMAs and Ask(whatever) work because of mods working for free. Good luck keeping that going by pissing your mods off. Reddit is somewhat lucky because the lack of competitors in the sphere because it is difficult to monetize the user without driving the user off.
Turing_Machine 11y ago
No, they're the suppliers, but pissing off suppliers can be just as bad as pissing off customers, particularly if there's no other supplier easily available. You can't just pick up the phone and find a new source for 35 million people to provide you with free content.

untog 11y ago

Not really. Reddit users - the ones that view the advertising - are the product. The community mods are the ones that ensure there is content to make it worth coming to the site in the first place. Without that community people will stop coming to the site.

Bjartr 11y ago

>but ultimately, most people WILL keep visiting the site. Which is why Digg is considered a such a success today right? Sure, the community is the product, but there is a breaking point where you end up losing the community.

benihana 11y ago

>The Reddit community is not the customer. They're the product. Yay, this meme again. What a silly oversimplification. Of course reddit users are customers of reddit. Reddit does not exist without their continuing visits. Their ability to create meaningful content is part of the product, along with how reddit the site actually functions. But they are in no means not customers nor the only part of the product. I'm surprised how often people on reddit say this, given what happened to Digg.

ectoplasm 11y ago
Customers pay for services. Advertisers are customers. The only sense in which most redditors are customers is that they pay for internet access. So (assuming you watch TV), just as you as a TV watcher are a client of your TV company and the TV advertisers are clients of the TV networks you watch, you as an internet user are a client of your ISP and internet advertisers are clients of the websites you visit. There are exceptions, when users end up paying websites directly for services or products, but this is usually how the "free to visit" internet manages to sustain itself. I wish it wasn't like that, I want to search for ads not have them delivered to me. https://www.reddit.com/advertising https://www.reddit.com/advertising
- pixl97 11y ago
  Repeat after me: Reddit is not a content provider. Your Cable/TV company buys content and resales it to you. Reddit does not buy content. The content of Reddit is provided by, moderated by, and upvoted by the users. You can treat them like a consumer, but it is at your own peril as they quickly wander off to other sites. Social sites like Reddit do not fit nicely in to the little boxes businesses like to make when predicting profits.
  - ectoplasm 11y ago
    Oh, I think I must have miscommunicated something. I was comparing Cable/TV companies to ISPs and TV networks to websites. I agree that Reddit is not comparable to a Cable/TV company. As in, end users are customers/clients of Cable/TV companies and ISPs because they pay them money, but they do not pay TV networks and websites. Further, advertisers are customers/clients of TV networks and websites but they are not clients of Cable/TV companies and ISPs (generally speaking). The only significant claim I'm making is that social media users are not customers/clients unless they are giving money to the websites. Mostly it's advertisers giving the money. Also, I know that the content of social media websites is both created and consumed by users, but nevertheless the social media companies operate those websites, store and process the content, and provide the content created by everyone to everyone. This doesn't make the users into customers however, because they still aren't giving money to website. An analogy would be a TV show where the creators just gave the show to the network for free, and then watched it at home. Or maybe, a news station that films people's real lives and then uses that to sell ads. As for Hacker News, we are also not the customers. Maybe you could argue that investors are customers, since HN is a promotional vehicle for YC. But, that's kind of murky.

pixl97 11y ago

I think you're confused on how Reddit works. People visit Reddit because of the huge amount of content being posted, and reposted, on the site. A very small percentage of the userbase does that. If that small percentage of posters move away from Reddit a very large percentage of the 'silent majority' will follow them. Reddit has a hold of nothing. There is little cost to moving to a new site. With Facebook you will lose your personal contacts that you likely know by name, with Reddit you only really know most people by aliases. Popular things like AMAs and Ask(whatever) work because of mods working for free. Good luck keeping that going by pissing your mods off. Reddit is somewhat lucky because the lack of competitors in the sphere because it is difficult to monetize the user without driving the user off.

Turing_Machine 11y ago

No, they're the suppliers, but pissing off suppliers can be just as bad as pissing off customers, particularly if there's no other supplier easily available. You can't just pick up the phone and find a new source for 35 million people to provide you with free content.