So this was 10 years ago, lol. How the tables have turned
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1onx27/comment/cctw6ea
They used to display a bar in the top right of the screen that was “percentage of daily server costs that are covered by Reddit Gold purchases today” and I remember them always hitting the goal. What other costs (besides staff) were they losing so much money on?
It’s not enough to cover all expenses and maybe a bit extra for growth forever. You must extract all possible value and give it to the shareholders. If the business doesn’t suffer over time then you didn’t extract hard enough and are depriving the poor shareholders. Concentrate the wealth. Suck it dry. Go until nothing is left and move on to the next one. Numbers must always go up.
Shu also tells me that RIF was paying a “sizable revenue share” to Reddit beginning in 2012, which was during Yishan Wong’s tenure as CEO. Shu says he says initiated the talks with Reddit to create the agreement, which allowed for the licensed use of Reddit’s trademarks. (At the time, the app was called “reddit is fun.”) Shu says Reddit terminated the agreement in 2016 — which was the year after Huffman took over as CEO.
It’s a shame that Reddit’s greed has even prevented them from considering reasonable options like revenue sharing.
Does anybody else remember when they were really pissed off at the old CEO and people rejoiced when u/spez replaced her?