Right here’s a blast from the previous: Digg, one of many internet’s early information aggregators, is now again beneath the possession of its unique founder Kevin Rose. Notably, he’s being joined as co-owner by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian (each pictured above).
Digg and Reddit have been as soon as fierce rivals within the on-line social information aggregation house, launching inside a 12 months of one another some 20 years in the past. The 2 platforms loved comparable trajectories within the intervening years, going by means of numerous house owners and spin-offs. However Reddit’s endurance has been significantly notable, with the corporate lastly going public final 12 months in a bumper IPO and its user-growth has continued trending upwards.
Digg, for its half, didn’t stand the check of time fairly so nicely. The corporate was break up into elements in 2012 and bought to incubator Betaworks, with LinkedIn and the Washington Submit buying among the property. Digg later raised a strategic spherical of funding from USA At this time proprietor Gannett, earlier than touchdown within the palms of digital promoting firm BuySellAds, which acquired a majority stake in 2018.
A ‘contemporary imaginative and prescient’
Digg by no means soared to the identical heights as Reddit, which is why Rose and Ohanian have now joined forces to “revive” the platform with a “contemporary imaginative and prescient to revive the spirit of discovery and real group that made the early internet a enjoyable and thrilling place to be,” in accordance with a press launch issued as we speak.
Rose says he has been approached “at numerous instances” by means of the years to purchase Digg, however he famous that it by no means felt like the best time.
So why now? It’s a mixture of causes, in accordance with Rose, who says that the present social media panorama has change into poisonous, messy, and riddled with misinformation — and AI is well-placed to deal with that.
“Only recently we’ve hit an inflection level the place AI can change into a useful co-pilot to customers and moderators, not changing human dialog, however quite augmenting it, permitting customers to dig deeper, whereas on the similar time eradicating a whole lot of the repetitive burden for group moderators,” Rose stated.
Ohanian, for his half, has dipped out and in of Reddit by means of the years. He first left the corporate in 2009 earlier than returning as its chairman in 2014 after which stepped down from the board altogether in 2020. Simply this week, Ohanian joined Frank McCourt’s bid to purchase TikTok’s U.S. enterprise.
“On-line communities thrive when there’s a steadiness between expertise and human judgment,” Ohanian stated. “We’re bringing Digg again to make sure that steadiness exists. Kevin and I are right here to construct one thing higher than what social platforms are providing as we speak. AI ought to deal with the grunt work within the background whereas people give attention to what they do greatest: constructing actual connections.”
Each Rose and Ohanian have invested in different firms by means of the years, each as people and thru institutional funds. This expertise has now intersected with True Ventures, which counts Rose as a associate, and Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six each investing in Digg.
Whereas Rose will function Digg’s chairperson and advisor, and Ohanian will sit on the board, the brand new incarnation shall be led by CEO Justin Mezzell — a “longtime collaborator” of Kevin Rose and “seasoned product design chief,” in accordance with the press launch.
A brand new model of the Digg platform is touted for launch quickly. Invitations shall be rolled out within the coming weeks.
