One of the Wired predictions for 2007 caught my eye: “Digg Becomes the New Friendster…Digg holds out for a big payday but ends up like Friendster (i.e., no friends).” It caught my eye because Wired owns Digg competitor Reddit. Now that they are in the startup game, they need to be aware of those pesky conflicts of interest.
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9 comments
Agreed. If not unethical, it’s at least poor form to trash your competitor even if it’s a brief mention in those predictions. I’m still waiting to see what changes to Reddit will come of the Wired purchase.
I think it’s a joke. With things like “Google Stock Hits $1,000 per Share” or “DNA Database for Athletes”… they aren’t serious.
People still read Wired? They became irrelevant for me a few years ago…
Conflict or not, they could be right
Setting ethics aside, Mike do you think that Digg can turn themselves into a successful profitable company? Do you think Wired is right?
If I remember right, uou said that Digg.com will become bigger then then NY Times. Do you still stand by that idea?
Conflicts of interest?! No way…. they’re a new kind of media dude!
I think Digg needs to hustle something. I am not sure what.
Wired has good articles but its layout gives me a headache.
Talking trash is part of our society as a whole. I think it adds a bit of fun to the whole game of reddit vs digg. Now do you really think digg is going under in 2007?
I seriously doubt it. I think their latest influx of cash will hold them over for the year. I do however agree with another post above (Justin Thorp) – that they will need to come up with something tangible that they can make their own money off of.
I’m sure they will have competition throughout 2007, but competition breeds innovation, and overall – it makes it a great user experience.
Rex
The thing I wonder is that can they find a way to be profitable with the current audience that they seem to be having a hard time getting away from.
Now the statistics may say that they are getting new users all the the time but you can’t tell me that the majority of their users aren’t just male geeks. At least two or three times a day there are stories about linux distributions. :-p Can Digg be profitable with just that audience?
What would they need to break through and get someone like my mom to depend on them for news? I know my mom wouldn’t use digg at this stage of the game.
As I’ve written elsewhere, a better social news site that consistently delivers higher quality content could cause a mass exodus of Digg users. Reddit is getting there, but not quite. Netscape tried and failed. But once something that delivers, by whatever mechanism, democratic or not, a consistently higher quality of stories, Digg will deflate just as quickly as it inflated.
If I were Kevin Rose, I would take the $60 million and sell out right now, quit while you’re ahead. Digg isn’t innovating fast enough to stay on top forever.
An editor at Wired should have added a disclaimer that the Wired now owns a Digg competitor, but it seems rather unfair to simply assume that wired is biased.
The people behind the article aren’t exactly getting bonuses based on how well Reddit does. I think they really just think Digg will fizzle out.
They need to use my disclosure policy Wordpress plugin. That way they can automatically add a disclaimer to all their current and past references to Reddit and Digg.
@Aaron B. Hockley:
Yes, people still read Wired. After a rough patch, the last few years it’s been a fantastic magazine.
Is it not right for Dikembe Mutombo to wag his finger at the person who’s shot he just blocked? Was it wrong for the beatles to say they are bigger than jesus? Is it wrong for me to say that Season 2.5 of battlestar galattica was the best and it’s been downhill since there?
I think digg probably is the next friendster, look at the traffic stats. Comparing the two makes sense. Is it wrong to be prescient and do that? it’s the winners that write the history books, not the losers.