IMO, anybody who invested is a fool. AFAIK the only user-generated content companies that have made the model work are Google (YouTube) and Meta, and that’s because they’re the advertising duopoly that controls the Internet. Maybe TikTok, but that one’s a mess. Twitter couldn’t do it, even before Elon they were a big money loser.
So, what does Reddit have that other companies don’t? Nothing really. And now that they did their IPO their investors are going to start demanding growth, which means enshittification. But, unlike YouTube where there’s no viable competitor, or Facebook / Instagram where there are network effects locking people in. Reddit users are mostly pseudonymous. IMO that also means much more likely to jump to another platform like Lemmy.
IMO, anybody who invested is a fool. AFAIK the only user-generated content companies that have made the model work are Google (YouTube) and Meta, and that’s because they’re the advertising duopoly that controls the Internet. Maybe TikTok, but that one’s a mess. Twitter couldn’t do it, even before Elon they were a big money loser.
So, what does Reddit have that other companies don’t? Nothing really. And now that they did their IPO their investors are going to start demanding growth, which means enshittification. But, unlike YouTube where there’s no viable competitor, or Facebook / Instagram where there are network effects locking people in. Reddit users are mostly pseudonymous. IMO that also means much more likely to jump to another platform like Lemmy.