

Ask HN - How do Quora, Reddit and SO monetize? - factorialboy

I mean they provide a great service, but surely display ads can't be their monetizing strategy.<p>Will each of them eventually have to revert to an Experts-Exchange styled business model?<p>Or am I missing something very obvious? :)
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zumbojo
In the case of Stack Overflow/Stack Exchange, see Jeff Atwood's (slightly
dated - IIRC job candidates are no longer charged) answer to "What is Stack
Overflow's business model?":

[http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/79435/what-is-
stack-...](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/79435/what-is-stack-
overflows-business-model/79448#79448)

And their Careers 2.0 employer page:

<http://careers.stackoverflow.com/employer>

------
debacle
Reddit displays ads and sponsored stories (which lately have become almost
indistinguishable from regular stories).

Reddit Gold probably makes them more than either of the above, but I'm just
pontificating here.

SO can probably monetize pretty well with ads - their demographic is much more
targetted. I think they also have a paid jobs posting service. Again, just
speculating. I don't know the financials of either of these companies.

~~~
mapleoin
_Reddit Gold probably makes them more than either of the above, but I'm just
pontificating here._

I think you're misusing the verb _to pontificate_. Maybe you wanted to say
_guessing_ instead?

 _SO can probably monetize pretty well with ads - their demographic is much
more targetted._

Here you're mildly pontificating when you're telling SO what they should do to
monetize their service.

~~~
debacle
I think I'm using it just fine - talking out my ass.

~~~
msellout
Ah. Language drift.

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ThomPete
It's interesting that no one have answered how Quora makes money.

They dont seem to have one yet.

But here are possible avenue they could explore.

[http://www.quora.com/What-could-Quoras-long-term-business-
pl...](http://www.quora.com/What-could-Quoras-long-term-business-plan-be)

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tomgallard
StackOverflow makes money off their jobs board:
<http://careers.stackoverflow.com/>

whether it is enough to support the rest of the company- I'm not sure.

~~~
why-el
And the ads obviously.

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nicknyc10k
As noted, I think employment opportunities are one way to potentially get some
cash. the bigger opportunity is being able to quantify knowledge and expertise
in a subject. All these sites can verify and demonstrate a given understanding
and communication of concepts, experience and expertise. Seems like the way to
drive revenue would be to provide a potential employer or current employer
with a skills evaluation or the ability to find expertise.

Plus, all have the ability to connect people who would pay for access to
individuals with info or knowledge. Similar to Gerson Lehrman Group.

~~~
sk55
Interesting.

"Recently GLG has created Hightable (formerly known as G+),[26] a professional
question-and-answer website, edited and organized by its community of users to
compete with Quora[27] and to attract more experts to their platform."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerson_Lehrman_Group>

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raldi
I think Craigslist is a good model: Stay lean, and find one or two small areas
of the site that people are willing to pay for, then use that to fund the rest
of it for free.

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beerglass
Try posting it on Quora for a direct response from founders

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relaxman
[http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_kovacs_tracking_the_trackers.h...](http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_kovacs_tracking_the_trackers.html)

~~~
adambyrtek
Do you have any context for this link?

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jarrettcoggin
I'm not sure about Quora, but Reddit has Reddit Gold (monthly subscription,
$4/month I think) and Ads (I'm not sure of anything else), and SO has the jobs
platform where businesses are charged to post employment opportunities ($350
for 30-day listing) and again, I'm not sure of any other monetization
strategies for SO.

------
japhyr
I read someone's estimate of SO's revenue a couple years back. Does anyone
know if this was a reasonable estimate or not?

[http://blog.olegkokorin.com/2010/03/04/stackoverflow-
revenue...](http://blog.olegkokorin.com/2010/03/04/stackoverflow-revenue-
estimated/)

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tszming
Amazon's affiliate program

[http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/26964/auto-
inserting...](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/26964/auto-inserting-
stack-overflow-affiliate-into-all-amazon-book-links)

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artie_effim
You know, and this got me off the Facebook: "If you are not paying for it,
you're not the customer; you're the product being sold."

I'll wager dollars to doughnuts that all those sites are selling user data to
Madison Ave et al.

~~~
christonog
So what about credit cards and bank accounts that have no annual fees
(essentially free to use)? I suppose your money is the product being sold (in
terms of interest) in this case.

~~~
pavel_lishin
Stores have to pay to use Visa, etc. So you're still paying for that credit
card via slightly higher prices.

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brennenbyrne
They have your eyeballs, now they just need someone to pay for them.

