this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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Reddit: 'We Are in the Early Stages of Monetizing Our User Base' (www.404media.co)
submitted 8 months ago by DolphinMath@slrpnk.net to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Reddit said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that its users’ posts are “a valuable source of conversation data and knowledge” that has been and will continue to be an important mechanism for training AI and large language models. The filing also states that the company believes “we are in the early stages of monetizing our user base,” and proceeds to say that it will continue to sell users’ content to companies that want to train LLMs and that it will also begin “increased use of artificial intelligence in our advertising solutions.”

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Reddit has entered a contract with Google, which will license its content for $60 million a year in order to train Google’s AI models.

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[–] athos77@kbin.social 193 points 8 months ago (3 children)

You know how spez was bitching about how reddit never made a profit? Yeah, now we know why. You know what his compensation was last year? $193,000,000. Fuck that arrogant prick.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 86 points 8 months ago

But the mods are landed gentry. The gall

[–] SuperSynthia@lemmy.world 60 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Excuse me, WHAT THE FUCK? 193 MIL?

[–] athos77@kbin.social 86 points 8 months ago

Yeah, and they gave the COO like another 93 million. Yet somehow we're the "landed gentry".

https://www.thedailybeast.com/reddit-files-to-go-public-reveals-that-it-paid-ceo-dollar193-million-last-year

[–] Plopp@lemmy.world 31 points 8 months ago

Not even 200. 😢

[–] fernandofig@reddthat.com 17 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Not to take Reddit's / spez side, but to clarify, that's not actually what he got in cash - what he got in cash on 2023 was something around 600k.

Those 193mil was in stock. Which kind of explains his drive to monetize users and kick out third-party apps: that piece of paper is only worth that much as long as he can keep the stock value afloat.

[–] SuperSynthia@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I just wish these platforms wouldn’t attract people like that. I get he is after a life changing amount of money no doubt, but 600k is a comfortable living by any metric.

Thank goodness for this decentralized stuff now. Communities are important, especially for the marginalized in society. There is a potential good in social technology without jerks with ad budgets and AI delusions of grandeur

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I just wish these platforms wouldn’t attract people like that.

He was a Founder who left and came back. In all fairness, he was never attracted to it so much as he was instrumental in creating it.

The type of person he is is the type of person who created the platform to begin with...

Another example might be Jack Dorsey, who claimed that Elon Musk could be the only one to save Twitter.

In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.

These asshats are all alike. To get to the point where you can afford fleets of servers to create a service like this to begin with, you already were exploiting people and greasing palms. Other than Aaron Swartz, you should be pretty fucking skeptical of anyone who has been involved with Y Combinator.

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

get he is after a life changing amount of money no doubt, but 600k is a comfortable living by any metric.

Can't buy very many yachts on that salary. /s

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I can't understand how investors would fall for this. For the sake of humanity and my own mental health I hope they don't. But I have a suspicion they will, and it goes to shows how fucked up the world is.

[–] athos77@kbin.social 20 points 8 months ago (2 children)

It's why they released news of the actual IPO on the same day they released the news of Google buying our data: they want to tie reddit and Google together in the public's mine, make reddit seem better than it is.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It would be HILARIOUS if Google declared Reddit shady AF and bailed on the contract

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

It would be HILARIOUS if Google declared Reddit shady AF and bailed on the contract

Google gave up their "do no evil" philosophy a long time ago, unfortunately.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Around the time they re-corporatized into Alphabet. Probably a little while before that, so at least a solid decade since that's been completely out the window.

Also, it only ever referred to putting ads before search results... which is how it is now. They clearly dropped any principles they had a long time ago. It's honestly a little shocking more isn't written about how Google was one of the earliest to begin its enshittification process, probably with the death of Google Reader, which was the death knell for RSS feeds and the Old Internet.

They restructured as Alphabet in 2015, and Reader was shut down in 2013. Google was founded in 1998. So that means it took about 15 years all told for Google to completely shed any ethics or morals they had about being a better company. That's how quickly selling out your principles happens now.

Speaking of which, let's bring back Selling Out.

[–] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Also, it only ever referred to putting ads before search results…

In case anyone wants to read up more about this.

[–] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 8 months ago

I sure as hell hope that my deleted posts aren't part of that data.

[–] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

Investors seem to be some of the most powerful and yet fucking stupidest people alive.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 1 points 8 months ago

That's why they're trying to sell sick to their own tedditors first. If theyre gullible enough to stick around they're gullible enough to invest.