Right here’s a blast from the previous: Digg, one of many internet’s early information aggregators, is now again beneath the possession of unique founder Kevin Rose. Notably, he’s joined as co-owner by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian (each pictured above).
Digg and Reddit had been as soon as fierce rivals within the on-line social information aggregation area, launching inside a yr 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 most notable, as the corporate lastly went public final yr in a bumper IPO and its user-growth has continued upwards within the following months.
Digg, for its half, hasn’t stood the check of time fairly so properly. The corporate was break up into elements in 2012 and offered to incubator Betaworks, with LinkedIn and the Washington Publish buying among the property. Digg later raised a strategic spherical of funding from USA Right this moment proprietor Gannett, earlier than touchdown within the palms of digital promoting firm BuySellAds which acquired a majority stake in 2018.
A ‘recent 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 “recent 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 response to a press release issued at this time.
Rose says that he has been approached “at numerous occasions” by means of the years with a view towards shopping for Digg, noting that it by no means felt like the proper time.
So why now? It’s a mixture of causes, in response to Rose, who says that the prevailing social media panorama has turn out to be poisonous, messy, and riddled with misinformation — with AI well-placed to deal with that.
“Only in the near past we’ve hit an inflection level the place AI can turn out to be a useful co-pilot to customers and moderators, not changing human dialog, however relatively augmenting it, permitting customers to dig deeper, whereas on the similar time eradicating quite a 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, initially leaving in 2009 earlier than returning as chairman in 2014 after which stepping down from the board altogether in 2020. And simply this week, Ohanian joined Frank McCourt’s bid to purchase TikTok’s U.S. enterprise.
“On-line communities thrive when there’s a stability between know-how and human judgment,” Ohanian stated. “We’re bringing Digg again to make sure that stability exists. Kevin and I are right here to construct one thing higher than what social platforms are providing at this time. AI ought to deal with the grunt work within the background whereas people give attention to what they do finest: constructing actual connections.”
Each Rose and Ohanian have invested in different firms by means of the years, as people and thru institutional funds. This expertise has now intersected, with True Ventures, which counts Rose as a companion; and Ohanian-founded Seven Seven Six investing in Digg.
Whereas Rose will function Digg chairperson and advisor, and Ohanian will sit on the board, the brand new incarnation can be led by CEO Justin Mezzell, a “longtime collaborator” of Kevin Rose and “seasoned product design chief,” in response to the press launch..
A brand new model of the Digg platform is touted for launch quickly, with invitations being rolled out within the coming weeks.