Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout “will pass”
www.theverge.com
“We absolutely must ship what we said we would.”

Spez, and Reddit as a whole is basically counting on most subreddits opening back up tomorrow after the 48-hour period.

Really hope that mods can hold out for longer, make them really panic.

  • SmolderingSauna
    4•2 years ago

    This just in from forbes.com:

    “Investors are fed up. Fidelity, which led Reddit’s $700 million funding round in 2021 with a $10 billion valuation, has cut its Reddit company valuation by 41% since it invested. This could scupper Reddit’s plans to eventually go public with a reported valuation of $15 billion.”

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/qai/2023/06/13/redditors-go-to-war-with-the-company-as-it-enforces-eye-watering-prices-for-reddit-api/

    Who actually loses a game of chicken of this magnitude?!? u/spez, you listening?!?

    • Serinus
      2•2 years ago

      The app owners will work with him to prevent AI training from taking data from the site for free. And any issues the third party apps have doing that will be shared by the official app. They’re not special in that regard. You can’t really have public secrets behind a paywall. It doesn’t really work.

      There are many, many options here that are only being held back by Huffman’s ego. Imagine losing billions in valuation because of personal ego. I bet investors are thrilled.

      • LDRMS
        0•2 years ago

        Isn’t it entertaining to watch?!! I’ve gone through a few bags of popcorn over the course of the last few days🍿🍿

        • madjo
          1•2 years ago

          that’s one thing I still remember after all of this. Popcorn still tastes good

      • Xeelee
        0•2 years ago

        It’s not just his ego but also his incompetence which has been very apparent for his entire tenure. I really don’t get how they’ve be never managed to find someone who’s up to the job.

    • Fatalchemist
      0•2 years ago

      u/spez, you listening?!?

      Clearly he hasn’t for even a brief moment.

    • kai333
      0•2 years ago

      The surefire way of getting your ass in trouble: Pissing off rich, powerful people.

      That said, it would be such poetic justice if WSB somehow ate reddit’s tail because of this.

    • Beluuuuuuga
      0•2 years ago

      I’m not surprised that Fidelity is losing faith in Reddit. The way Steve completely alienated the whole community, well he’s basically shooting himself in the foot.

      • trekkie1701c
        0•2 years ago

        Also he admitted they don’t make money and said they need to be profit driven til they do.

        To me that says he’s not sure this will actually make Reddit profitable; so looking at it from a detached, “I just care about the money” perspective I’d be really nervous about investing in Reddit. Feels like Spez would just light it all on fire.

        They really need someone competent at the helm.

        • Spaceman2901
          0•2 years ago

          Competence runs a distant second to “trustable” at this point. Spez has shown he can’t be trusted.

          • massacre
            0•2 years ago

            Wait until he starts retroactively editing posts and/or deleting and shadowbanning against mutinous mods. I really hope the blackout keeps rolling a week or two and they see their ad rev and user impressions tank.

            Spez already said they aren’t changing their minds. And by the time the realize they might want to, it’s going to be too late.

            • ringwraithfish
              2•2 years ago

              I posted about kbin.social in a comment thread from RIF and saw my comment posted, but when I checked under my profile the next day, the comment was gone. Not deleted by mods or reddit…just gone, like it never existed.

              This was shortly after reddit banned the kbin subreddit for “spamming”.

              First time something like that has ever happened in the 10+ years I’ve been on there. Pretty much cemented my decision to stay away unless major changes happen.

    • ErraticDragon
      0•2 years ago

      Note that this cut in valuation has nothing to do with the blackout. It’s actually old news. Forbes did mention it in their most recent article, but the majority of the drop in valuation was last year.

      https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/01/fidelity-reddit-valuation/

      Fidelity, the lead investor in Reddit’s most recent funding round in 2021, has slashed the estimated worth of its equity stake in the popular social media platform by 41% since the investment.

      Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund’s stake in Reddit was valued at $16.6 million as of April 28, according to the fund’s monthly disclosure released over the weekend. That’s down 41.1% cumulatively since August 2021 when the asset manager spent $28.2 million to acquire the Reddit shares, according to disclosures the firm has made in its annual and semi-annual reports. […]

      The substantial markdown of Reddit’s value by Fidelity predominantly occurred by the previous year. Nevertheless, it merits pointing out that Fidelity has persistently implemented minor reductions in the worth of Reddit’s shares in the ensuing months.