Do we at this point have any substantial data on just how many users Reddit actually lost due to this?
Any resources would be greatly appreciated.
As a sidenote, I’ll add that they certainly lost my account the second I couldn’t use RiF anymore.
Do we at this point have any substantial data on just how many users Reddit actually lost due to this?
Any resources would be greatly appreciated.
As a sidenote, I’ll add that they certainly lost my account the second I couldn’t use RiF anymore.
No real way to tell, but I don’t think it would be immediately noticeable on Reddit. Like the satisfying “we killed reddit” probably isn’t going to happen. On the other hand, being here clearly have discoverd the Fediverse as replacement, so IMO it doesn’t matter what happens to Reddit now. (Not to say the drama/any issues Reddit ends up with won’t be endlessly entertaining)
I definitely think getting interested in the fediverse is a long game. Think the death of Facebook. It was a slow burn between 2016 and 2020, involving lots of different communities moving at different times for different reasons
But…Facebook isn’t dead. I mean it’s dead to me, but it’s still going quite strong.
I used to think this until all of the recent blows they have had, such as the IAmA losses and Microsoft withdrawing their Minecraft support. With advertisers withdrawing and users leaving, I think they are going to have problems covering operating expenses in the near term that could lead to an implosion due to lack of funds.
Before all this started, Fidelity’s Reddit investment was devalued pretty heavily and they have had profitability issues. Tech companies in general are having investor problems due to interest rates so Reddit have problems is going to really scare away any risk-adverse investors. They have proven they cannot control their user base (which is good news for users) which scares advertisers away from content unfriendly to their interests. They just doubled their employees from like 1000 to 2000 in the past couple of years, which just adds astronomically to their operating expenses.
I think they make about $500 million in revenue and are still in the red. Even minor changes to this expense/income ratio can cause issues that make them suddenly insolvent with no one to bail them out.