The Revival of Digg: A New Era of Community-Led Social Media
A Blast from the Past
In the summer of 2005, Alexis Ohanian, a tech entrepreneur, sent an email to his colleague Steve Huffman with an ominous subject line: "Meet the enemy." The body of the email contained just one line – a link to Digg, a community-focused social message board where people shared and discussed news articles and links to other sites they found interesting. Ohanian and Huffman, who had founded a similar effort called Reddit, set their competitive sights on Digg and its founder, Kevin Rose.
A Brief History of Digg
Digg was founded in 2004 and quickly gained popularity for its robust user base of active contributors, who regularly returned to the site. The company raised tens of millions of dollars and fielded acquisition offers from Google and others. In 2006, Rose posed for a now-infamous photo on a BusinessWeek cover, sporting a wide grin and giving two thumbs up, with the headline "How This Kid Made $60 Million in 18 Months." (Rose hated the photo.)
The Demise of Digg
However, the company’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. Digg launched a redesign of its site that its community widely rejected. Users eventually left in droves, as did executives. Rose left Digg in 2012. That same year, the company was divvied up and sold for parts to Betaworks, LinkedIn, and The Washington Post.
The Revival
In 2023, Rose announced that he had bought back Digg for an undisclosed sum from Money Group, a digital media company, and would rebuild it to take on Reddit. And he is doing it with an unlikely ally: Ohanian. "This is the perfect time to revisit this idea with fresh eyes," Rose, 48, now a venture capitalist at True Ventures, said in an interview. "We don’t need to take down Reddit to win."
The New Digg
Rose and Ohanian are relaunching Digg when social media is in tumult. Elon Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X, has turned the platform into a mirror of himself. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is becoming more video-focused to compete with TikTok. And Reddit, which went public a year ago, has added gamelike features to nudge users into spending more time on the site – and more time looking at advertising.
The Vision for Digg
Rose and Ohanian are relaunching Digg to focus on "connection and humanity" online. They aim to cut through the pitfalls of modern social media by empowering moderators with better tools to maintain online communities. "What we never focused on is the back end," Ohanian said, referring to the tools and features that moderators lean on. "But it’s the back end that really, really matters."
Conclusion
The revival of Digg is a bold move in a crowded social media landscape. With the backing of True Ventures and Seven Seven Six, Rose and Ohanian aim to create a community-driven platform that prioritizes connection and humanity. While the initial reaction may be muted, Rose has grand plans for Digg, including the use of AI to make the site more accessible and reduce spam, misinformation, and harassment.
FAQs
Q: What is the goal of the new Digg?
A: The goal is to create a community-driven platform that prioritizes connection and humanity, cutting through the pitfalls of modern social media.
Q: Who is behind the new Digg?
A: The new Digg is being led by Kevin Rose, co-founder of the original Digg, and Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit.
Q: How will the new Digg differ from the original?
A: The new Digg will focus on empowering moderators with better tools to maintain online communities and will use AI to make the site more accessible and reduce spam, misinformation, and harassment.
Q: What is the timeline for the new Digg?
A: The new Digg is set to relaunch in the coming weeks, with a mobile-focused approach and a phased rollout of features.
