![]() THE NICHE FACTORįacebook struggled for years to develop a marketplace because its users aren’t in a shopping mindset when they log on. “I don’t believe in going after someone else’s market, but going after a new market of our own could be huge by itself,” Wong said. Wong said he did not envision Reddit posing a threat to folksy arts and crafts e-tailers like Etsy Reddit could carve out a space with a geekier sensibility. Wong said he saw potential in Gifts earlier this year and began staffing up the effort to eight people.Īlthough Wong is giddy about Gifts’ impact on its finances, what scale the business could reach remains unclear. It means that what you’re doing provides real value, and Reddit Gifts is so promising because it can do that.” “But I would like Reddit to be self-sustaining because I think that’s a healthy way for a business to run. “Our backers are saying, ‘Don’t worry about making money, just keep money and grow things,’” Wong said in an interview. Industry observers surmised at the time that the move was a step toward eventually selling off a stake to outside investors. In 2011, Reddit was spun out as an independently operated subsidiary by corporate parent Conde Nast, an old-line magazine empire best known for publishing Vanity Fair, Vogue and The New Yorker. He added that the company may choose to reinvest funds in e-commerce customer service and infrastructure.Ĭhief Executive Yishan Wong, a former Facebook executive, said Reddit was “kind of” breaking even and denied that pressure was mounting on his team to turn a profit. Yet those sales alone could put Reddit firmly in the black, said Dan McComas, the head of Reddit Gifts. The company, which is hoping to position itself as a bona fide shopping destination year-round, estimates that only 14 percent of its marketplace revenue comes from the Christmas-season gift exchange programs. The gift exchange made headlines this month after Gates signed up and surprised a Reddit user by sending her a travel book and a stuffed cow, symbol of the charity he donated to in her name. More than 250 merchants supply gifts curated and “up-voted” by the community, much as articles and links are elevated on the Reddit site itself. ![]() Usually priced between $10 and $25, the goods reflect Reddit’s young and geeky user base, from collages of cats in steampunk apparel to coffee mugs branded by, a repository of funny Web pictures, to an entire category dedicated to bacon-related products. Reddit estimates over 250,000 items have been purchased over the holiday, mostly as part of the 50 or so mostly geek-oriented Secret Santa gift exchanges - where zombie- or fantasy-themed presents, say, change hands - that users have created.Īlthough Reddit won’t disclose details about how much money it has made from Reddit Gifts or its overall financial performance, it takes a 15 to 20 percent cut of every purchase. If Reddit Gifts, as the burgeoning bazaar is known, brings sustainable profitability, it would mark a turning point for an outfit that has exerted an outsized and sometimes controversial influence on Internet culture yet languished financially. Now, the self-dubbed “Front Page of the Internet” is going for a milestone it has been trying to reach since its founding in 2005: profitability.Īfter years of fitful experiments with paid subscriptions and display advertising, Reddit, with just 28 employees, has begun pouring resources into building an electronic bazaar.Ĭompany executives say they increasingly believe such a venue is the answer to their long search for reliable revenue, complicated in part by their fans’ mistrust of advertising. This season, even Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates joined its Secret Santa gift exchange. The big get for 2013 was reaching 90 million unique visitors a month, according to the company, on par with the likes of eBay. SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Social news hub Reddit snagged an interview with Barack Obama last year.
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