[flukus]

AFAIK, reddit didn't take much venture capital so there was no pressure to make billions to appease investors that put billions in. They've never been aggressive about monetizing the site.

The network effect of reddit are also much less than twitter or facebook, it's primarily a news aggregator + comment system, there are plenty of competitors ready to step in if reddit starts throwing in tracking or invasive advertising.

> I've also heard that it only makes $10 million a year in revenue.

What's wrong with that? Not everyone wants to be the next google or facebook, I'd love to have a site that made $10 million a year, I'd be perfectly content with that and wouldn't have a desire to turn it into a multi billion dollar empire. ~20 years ago this was the dream of most software developers, carving out there own ISV niche and getting rich.

Unlike twitter, reddit is a sustainable business. If I had to bet on which one will still be here in 5-10 years I'd bet on reddit.

[spcelzrd]

I love the fact that reddit chooses to stay small and sustainable.

Twitter is taking the opposite path and they do everything in their power to alienate their most passionate users. However, I think Twitter is infrastructure now, like Facebook and LinkedIn, and it would be very difficult to disrupt or displace.

[angryasian]

I think this is a little bit of rewriting history. Reddit in the beginning was always fairly niche. Primarily for early adopters and tech focused. They were getting beaten by Digg, Fark, Slashdot, Twitter, Facebook etc. They sold to Conde Nast. I don't know if they could have raised a series A at the time. Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian created and sold Reddit in 16 months.

[kthaker]

I'm not saying there's anything bad about not being billion dollar plus company, I'm just wondering why they're not at that point (if by choice or otherwise).

Also, I heard they took 50 million from a VC a couple of years ago, so they probably will feel pressure to start throwing off money eventually. FWIW, I just think Reddit could be a lot bigger than it is now.