Michael and Johnny look at Reddit - its history, what led to its success, its controversies and wrap up with an animated discussion on whether it is a Rich Tech or a Poor Tech company.
In the News of the Week, we cover Apple’s App Store policy inconsistencies with their recent treatment of Hey, Basecamp’s newest app, and discuss Big Tech’s increased commitment to diversity.
Recorded Date: Sunday, June 21, 2020
Ideas of the Week:
- Ideas for: Reddit should hire content moderators like Facebook, Google - at least they will get paid!
- Ideas Against: Absolving Section 230 would lead to Reddit going out
Time Stamps
- @00:01:10: Apple’s App Store Inconsistencies
- @00:04:54: Companies increasing their commitments to diversity
- @00:12:13: Main Topic - Reddit
- @00:15:12: Reddit’s History & Success Factors
- @00:21:00: Reddit’s Controversies
- @00:28:00: What is Reddit’s value?
- @00:32:44: Rich Tech or Poor Tech
- @00:47:50: Ideas of the Week
Highlights
- Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO is donating $120 M to the United Negro College Fund & 2 historically Black colleges
- Can all these companies move the needle on diversity & inclusion with all these increased commitments?
- Why can’t these tech companies tackle diversity like they tackle new problems/opportunities?
- Can we honestly say that these companies which are the innovation leaders of the most innovative field in the entire world are putting the same effort into solving these problems as they are into the next money-making product?
- If you say you want to solve this problem, why don’t you solve it like you solve your business problems?
- Reddit aims to be the Front Page of the Internet
- Reddit cofounders Steve & Alexis were part of Y Combinator’s first batch of startups
- Reddit almost failed before it got started as they wrote it first in Common Lisp before re-writing it in Python
- Reddit succeeded because Digg failed
- Reddit’s controversies list has its own Wikipedia page
- Industry: Product isn’t news yet uses the same monetization strategies; Is it the new replacement for the Town Square -> By definition, Poor Tech
- Labor: Mainly White Collar inside the company, yet they have more moderators that work for free yet; Any employee can become CEO -> Poor Tech
- Customers: Don’t gain monetary wealth from using Reddit -> Poor Tech
- Contribution to Society: No monetary wealth created for Society -> Poor Tech
- Verdict: Reddit is a Poor Tech company
- Reddit has somehow succeeded despite itself like Twitter
