Everything you need to know about REDDIT — The front page of the internet
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Dear Introverts,
Now, if you’re an extrovert, please skip the upcoming para and jump on to the next one!
Reacting ‘WOW!’ to someone’s photo on Facebook is way too easier than saying ‘Hi!’ when you’re meeting in person. School reunions, family get-together, and every other social event that happens in one’s lifetime are always accompanied by an incalculable amount of AWKWARDNESS! Thanks to the advent of smartphones and the addictive apps for saving my ass during those embarrassing situations. Because, when I had nothing to say, I can stare at my smartphone and scroll through exciting stuff.
I deleted my facebook account way back before all the commotion about Zuck and his company hit the news. Glad, I deleted it. Nothing personal against Facebook, it is just that I had started using other apps which gave me a lot of value in return. Don’t be surprised, one among them was the REDDIT mobile app! I loved the content, humor, features and the usability of Reddit.
If you’re a newbie, Reddit is a social media product that allows registered users (called Redditors) to create accounts and post content. Each post is open to the rest of the Reddit community to vote “up” or “down” and post comments. The popularity of a post determines its position on the front page. Users gain “karma” points for the number of “upvotes” their posts or comments receive from the community. There are “subreddits” that act as categories so Redditors can follow their interests and control what content they see on their front page. Having explored it on the aspects of Biz, Tech, and Design, it’s high time that I shed some light.
The Birth
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In June 2005, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian founded Reddit. Unlike other founders, they weren’t dropouts. The Duo luckily graduated from The University Of Virginia.
Reddit reached its first milestone when it received 100,000 USD in funding from Y Combinator. Initially, the founders started to submit most of the links from many fake accounts before everything else kick-started. Reddit was sold to Conde Nast, the company under which the founders and the early staff quit. The site was now in the hands of new employees who had no traces of future vision for this crooked product. However, Reddit found it’s own way to become a successful tech startup.
One of the toughest things for a tech business isn’t building a huge community, but figuring out what not to do with it. So, in early 2008, what moved the Reddit community forward, was the subreddit feature a.k.a custom Reddits. The traffic started growing exponentially, making it as the dominant front page of the internet. Many subreddits have now become so engaging to offer new opportunities to the advertisers to reach their potential customers.
The Business Model
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Similar to most of the social networking sites, Reddit also makes money through advertisements. But unlike them, there are a lot more sources in the revenue model of Reddit. Reddit is a wide-open platform for advertisers willing to spend their time to do a little research. They can make their ad appear on the front page or target on specific subreddits as a sponsored link.
The rate usually starts from $5 and $0.75 per thousand page-views and can go up to a whopping $20,000!
Reddit also makes money by serving Google Adsense advertisements on its sidebar. Reddit also has a profit-yielding Premium GOLD membership option which is said to improve the user’s “Reddit experience” by providing extra features like options to turn off ads, more comments per page, save and categorize comments, access to custom themes provided by Reddit; it is a huge community in which users can upload custom designed themes, custom avatar creation, and a useful option to highlight new comments since user’s last visit to the subreddits which is really helpful when a user takes breaks from the subreddit and finally “gold members only” secret subreddits.
Reddit gold is $3.99 per month, $29.99 per year.
So, what’s the tech behind Reddit? It’s pretty huge to list them all here. Click on the link below to dig into the tech-stack.
Redesign it like REDDIT!
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No more boring design, it’s not the HTML way anymore. The front page of the internet has finally had a facelift with a brand new UI.
Digging deeper, there are basically 3 ways in which you can view the posts:
- Card- similar to a Facebook post.
- Classic- Older Reddit, but tidier.
- Compact- Compressed view for quicker browsing.
In the old Reddit, there are two buttons for creating a new post, both sitting on top of one another. One says ‘Submit a new text post’ and the other ‘Submit a new link’. For a new user, this could create confusion! Now there is just one ‘create post’ button which is a lot more convenient.
The buttons seemed smaller and hidden but with the new design, the navigation bar at the top is a lot more convincing and the icons are much clearer and pleasant.
Now with the new view, the user has greater control over how they interact with Reddit. The Card view, for example, breaks down every post into individual cards. The padding between the cards gives a sense of pause to the design and ensures that the user won’t be overwhelmed with a pile of links. The new fonts also help the visual hierarchy. Post titles and body text now seem to be easier to read.
The redesign has truly enhanced the usability of the product!
Finally, A list of my favorite Subreddits!
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Thank you for your precious time! If you found this article of value, click on the applause button to help other good souls find it.
With lots of love for products, people and life,
- Bharath