What Happened to Digg? The Untold Story of Social Media's Lost Giant

Digg's story is remarkable. The platform reached a peak valuation of $160 million and earned the title "the homepage of the internet." Its user base grew to 40 million monthly visitors. The company's fortunes changed drastically after a poorly executed redesign in 2010 that drove users away.

Kevin Rose now sees an opportunity for revival with new AI-powered features and support from notable investors, including Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

The Rise of Digg: A New Kind of Internet

Kevin Rose started what would become one of the internet's most influential platforms with a modest $6,000 investment in summer 2004. He created Digg with co-founders Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetsky, and Jay Adelson. The name came about because Disney already owned their first choice "Dig.com".

How Digg started and what made it unique

The platform quietly launched its beta version in April 2005 but didn't really take off until October that year. Digg revolutionized content curation with a fresh approach. Traditional news sites relied on editors, but Digg let users submit links and vote them up ("digg") or down ("bury"). Popular content naturally rose to the homepage, which became known as "the homepage of the internet".

The idea was brilliantly simple. Rose put it best: "No one had really done voting. There was no way to say, 'I vote on a piece of content.' And for me, it was such a no-brainer". The platform started as a tech news site, positioning itself as a better, more social alternative to Slashdot.

Kevin Rose's vision for democratized content

Rose wanted to create something different - a site where users called the shots. This was radical thinking when web "portals" like Yahoo ruled the internet. He believed quality content should rise based on community interest, not editorial decisions.

Rose explained his motivation: "I launched it because I thought, well, this would be an improved, more social version of Slashdot... Are there nuggets that the editors of Slashdot are overlooking that the masses would come together and vote on and bring to the surface?". Users soon started submitting content beyond technology, and Rose expanded the site's scope based on the community's interests.

The early success and user growth

Digg reached about 300,000 registered users by mid-2006. The site grew beyond tech and gaming to include content from various categories. Monthly visitors jumped to 17 million by 2007, and annual homepage traffic hit 236 million visitors in 2008.

This remarkable growth caught investors' attention. The company raised tens of millions in funding and received buyout offers from Google and others. Google almost bought Digg for $200 million in 2008. Rose's star rose quickly too. BusinessWeek put him on their 2006 cover with the headline "How This Kid Made $60 Million in 18 Months".

Websites everywhere started adding Digg buttons to their pages. The term "Digg effect" became part of internet vocabulary, describing the massive traffic spike websites got after featuring on Digg's homepage.

The Fall: Why Did Digg Fail?

Digg's spectacular collapse remains one of the internet's most dramatic cautionary tales. The platform reached its peak with nearly 40 million monthly visitors before its fortunes reversed almost overnight.

The 2010 redesign that backfired

The infamous "v4" redesign in August 2010 changed everything. This drastic overhaul stripped away popular features like the "bury" button for downvoting, saved favorites, category sorting, and video posting capabilities. These changes went beyond cosmetic updates and transformed how the platform worked by giving preference to publisher-contributed content instead of user submissions.

The redesign launched with bugs and performance problems everywhere. The platform allowed major publishers to auto-submit content through Digg's API, which flooded the front page with corporate content. Just days after launch, six corporate websites dominated 56% of the front page.

Users responded with immediate backlash. Traffic dropped by 50%, with US visits falling 26% and UK visits decreasing 34%. This mass exodus forced Digg to cut 25 of its 67 employees.

Loss of community trust and power user abuse

The v4 redesign tried to fix another big problem - the "power user" issue. Before these changes, a small group of influential users controlled content visibility. These power users created their own oligarchy, with their submissions making up 50% of front page content.

Blogger Simon Owens' interviews revealed that this core group had "hijacked Digg to promote the content they support over all other comers". Regular users felt frustrated because they couldn't get quality content noticed without gaming the system.

Reddit's rise as a better alternative

Reddit quietly positioned itself as the better option while Digg struggled. Reddit welcomed frustrated Digg users with open arms and even created "101" guides for newcomers.

Digg's traffic fell by 25% throughout 2010, while Reddit grew by an impressive 230%. Reddit officially passed Digg in visitor numbers by February 2011. The contrast was obvious - Digg chased monetization and publisher relationships while Reddit managed to keep its focus on community and user experience.

Kevin Rose’s Reflection and the Missed Chances

Kevin Rose has openly shared his thoughts about what went wrong with his groundbreaking platform Digg. The story of Digg's dramatic decline teaches valuable lessons about startup management and building communities on social media.

Leadership regrets and internal missteps

Several critical errors led to Digg's downfall. The team rushed into a redesign without proper testing. "We pushed too many things at once," Rose said in later interviews. His leadership team didn't realize how much these changes would disrupt the user experience.

The pressure from investors to make money led to hasty decisions. Digg raised $45 million in funding but couldn't create a working business model early enough. Rose now admits they should have focused on making profits before growing too fast.

Disconnect from users and moderators

The biggest mistake was losing connection with Digg's core community. Rose admits that "what happened to Digg" came from not listening to user feedback. The management saw power users as a problem rather than an asset that drove engagement. Poor communication with moderators caused serious damage. 

The v4 redesign failed because Digg didn't:

• Talk to community leaders

• Try changes with loyal users

• Help people adjust to changes

What Kevin Rose would do differently

Rose says he'd take a completely different path if he had another chance. He'd make small, gradual changes instead of the massive redesign that pushed users away. "I should've stayed closer to the product," Rose explained in later discussions about Digg's failure.

Digg needed better leadership at crucial times. Rose would have brought in experienced executives earlier and built a stable way to make money before chasing rapid growth.

The biggest lesson Rose learned was about listening to Digg's community. Social platforms belong to their users, not founders or investors. This wisdom shapes how Rose handles newer projects, where community feedback guides product development.

The Comeback: Is Digg Still Around Today?

Digg plans to make a comeback in 2025. Kevin Rose, its original founder, has regained the brand's control after multiple ownership changes over the last several years.

The new Digg app and its features

The new Digg's early access signup counter at reboot.digg.com shows more than 190,000 interested users. A new early-access community called "Groundbreakers" launched with a one-time $5 fee to keep bots away. The community will collectively choose a nonprofit to receive these proceeds.

This revamped version keeps Digg's signature upvote system but removes the controversial downvote feature that led to its decline. 

The new platform focuses on:

• Mobile-first experience that prioritizes smaller, interest-based communities

• Simple features at launch that improve based on user feedback

• Early adopters get first access to updates, mockups, and experiments

• Founding members receive a special "Groundbreakers badge"

AI-powered moderation and community tools

The most important innovation in Digg's return involves artificial intelligence. Rose wants to use AI to handle "grunt work" like spam filtering, flagging inappropriate content, and reducing toxic behavior. This lets human moderators move away from "janitorial work" to promote meaningful conversations.

"Online communities thrive when there's a balance between technology and human judgment," states Ohanian. "AI should handle the grunt work in the background while humans focus on what they do best: building real connections."

How Digg plans to compete in 2024

Reddit co-founder and Rose's former rival, Alexis Ohanian, has joined as an adviser. This unexpected partnership shows Digg's readiness to compete with established platforms, including Reddit.

Rose's team learned about moderator challenges by spending thousands on targeted Reddit ads. The new Digg enables moderators with better tools while trying to bring back the community spirit that made early social platforms unique.

"We're not here just to make a Reddit clone," Rose emphasizes. The leadership team sees their advantage in being more agile than larger competitors who are "slow to move."

Conclusion

Digg's story definitely reads like a classic internet cautionary tale. In spite of that, Kevin Rose's comeback attempt shows resilience after his past failures. The success of this AI-powered revival against today's social platforms remains uncertain. Social media history proves that platforms rarely win back their community's trust once it's gone.

FAQs

Q1. What led to Digg's downfall? 

Digg's decline was primarily due to a disastrous redesign in 2010 that removed popular features, prioritized publisher content over user submissions, and made the site unstable. This, combined with a loss of community trust and the rise of Reddit as a better alternative, led to a mass exodus of users.

Q2. How did Reddit benefit from Digg's collapse? 

As Digg users became increasingly dissatisfied, many migrated to Reddit. Reddit welcomed these new users, even changing its logo to include Digg's shovel icon. This influx of users significantly boosted Reddit's popularity and helped establish it as the dominant social news platform.

Q3. What lessons can social media platforms learn from Digg's failure? 

The main lesson is the importance of listening to and valuing the community. Digg's downfall came from ignoring user feedback, prioritizing monetization over user experience, and making drastic changes without proper testing. Social media platforms should focus on gradual improvements and maintain a strong connection with their user base.

Q4. Is Digg still around today? 

Yes, Digg still exists but in a very different form. It has been revived by its original founder, Kevin Rose, with a focus on AI-powered moderation and community tools. The new Digg aims to compete in the current social media landscape by addressing issues that led to its original downfall.

Q5. How does the current situation with Reddit compare to what happened with Digg? 

While there are some parallels, such as concerns about monetization and community management, the situations differ. Reddit hasn't made drastic changes to its core functionality like Digg did. However, recent controversies have raised questions about Reddit's relationship with its community and moderators, echoing some of the issues that contributed to Digg's decline.