Reddit created a way to drive more people to its native apps (where Reddit shows ads and generates revenue) as of July 1. But we can’t overlook that Reddit was built on people’s willingness to provide free content and labor, and the API battle has driven away some of the most popular content and veteran volunteer mods.
Reddit won the battle for API fees, but the war for desirable content—something no social media platform can ever be complacent about—is at risk. And that’s not the type of problem that ousted mods and forcibly reopened subreddits can fix.
Advance Publications, which owns Ars Technica parent Condé Nast, is the largest shareholder in Reddit.
That’s not just any publication, it’s owned by Reddit’s largest shareholder. They must be worried.
This is too good.
the last line in that article gave me whiplash. like oh shit
spez: We have always been at war with Eastasia. Victory Gin for everyone.
Tbf Ars is extremely editorially independent
I’ll be damned. I had no idea Conde Nast owned it. That said I can see a more recent injection of $150M by Tencent too.
On an unrelated note, r/sino is now a default sub.
That PRC echo chamber of a sub?
Conde Nast has owned Reddit in some part since at least 2012. They’ve tended to stay pretty hands off with it though.