Reddit Acquired? by in Uncategorized / October 31st, 2006
Techcrunch is reporting that Condé Nast has acquired Reddit. And Google acquired Jotspot. For the longest time I thought this whole idea of DotCom 2.0 was just people being pessimistic, but now I’m starting to worry that the bubble’s going to burst before this next generation of too-crazy-to-be-true ideas really finds its footing.
Reddit is a great site (I keep meaning to add it to my sidebar) but I really wonder how it can operate as part of a bigger traditional-media company. Making it a sub-element of the Wired site (for instance) kinda deflates its value, but they wouldn’t outright replace Wired either. So what’s the value of having something that just acts as an aggregator for the stuff they produce? The thing I worry about is that they’ll start to give their own content a special spotlight in the system, which undermines the philosophy of Reddit, and would start the user bleed, possibly over to Digg. And then they’ll have bought something that doesn’t have much value.
The thing I wonder about is this: in this crazy world, with an online code of ethics (mainly unspoken), can the creators of Reddit ever really move on to their next big project (if they even want to), or is the fact that they’re selling a community site to a big corporation going to hurt their chances of making another “grassroots” site in the future?
I wish companies would stop acquiring each other today. I’m not getting any work done.
Tags: conde nast, digg, reddit, wired
