Digg Sold To Betaworks - Rebuilding Digg.Com From Scratch In 6 Weeks

As a blogger and optimizer, I am always updated with the latest news and happenings inside the technology and internet world. News about companies acquiring other companies either to lower down their competition, to strengthen their market or to further build up their brands fascinates me. Stories like Facebook acquiring Instagram and now Betaworks buying Digg never fails to amaze me a lot.

Digg is acquired by Betaworks for a price of $500k (or probably more since the pricing is still under discussion based on tech websites close to the companies involve). Betaworks is the company behind the services bit.ly, news.me, Chartbeat and other successful startups and products.


Digg Sold


Here is the official statement from Digg's CEO Matt Williams about Betaworks acquiring Digg:

Today marks the next stage in Digg's future.

Believe it or not, it's been seven years since Digg launched. To date, we've had over 350M Diggs, 28M Story Submissions and 40M Comments. We're extremely proud to have helped pioneer social voting on the web.

......

We couldn't be happier to announce that the next generation of Digg will live on with the team from Betaworks. Betaworks is combining Digg with News.me, a Betaworks company with an iPad app, iPhone app and daily email that delivers the best stories shared by your friends on Facebook and Twitter. Digg will join a portfolio of products developed by Betaworks designed to improve the way people find and talk about the news. Betaworks founder John Borthwick will be the CEO of the new Digg.
Back to the selling price of Digg, if you guys can remember, Google is one of the many giant companies who offered Digg and its founder Kevin Rose a great price tag for the said site. Back in July 2008, TechCrunch posted an article saying that "Google In Final Negotiations To Acquire Digg For "Around $200 Million". Imagine that, from a very lucrative $200 Million (above 8 billion pesos in Philippine money when multiplied by 42 pesos if my math is correct) down to $500 thousand. But then again, it's better than nothing right? With Digg's traffic and income slowly declining, I think, it's a good move for Digg.com to accept what Betaworks has to offer.

So what's next for Digg?

"Betaworks is rebuilding Digg from scratch in just 6 weeks and wants your input" . This is the latest buzz today about that story.

According to Rethinkdigg.com:
As betaworks and Digg both announced on their blogs, we are taking over Digg and turning it back into a startup. What they didn’t mention is that we’re rebuilding it from scratch. In six weeks.

On August 1, after an adrenaline and caffeine-fueled six weeks, we’re rolling out a new v1. With this launch, we’re taking the first step towards (re)making Digg the best place to find, read and share the most interesting and talked about stories on the Internet — and we want your help.
So what does this news means to us? fans and users of Digg.com who loves to vote and share each others Digg submission stories?

Let us all wait and find out till August 1 of this year.

About The Author:

Ron Leyba is a Filipino Blogger And Optimizer. He recently posted about the 3 Reasons Why You Should Keep Your Secrets Away From Social Networking Sites at his own blog.

Also, read his guide on How To Check If Your Yahoo Mail Password Is Leaked! [With Solution] posted here at FilipinoBloggersWorldwide.Com.
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About Filipino Worldwide Bloggers

(FBW) started as a Facebook group on November 1, 2011 as Filipino Bloggers Around the World. As the name implies, the purpose is to unite all Filipino Bloggers around the world.

20 comments

  1. The $500K price tag is quite low which means that they were not able to sell at their peak. I've had business discussion with web and software developers and their end goal is really to get bought by a bigger rival. I guess that's how the business works.

  2. wow... I am new on Digg, I think I registered on this site, last week. I like their style of news syndication but I hope that the result is good.

  3. Forgot to add at the above article. Did you guys know that Kevin Rose, Digg founder, is now working at Google? Ironic right? He didn't sell Digg to Google before but now, he is working at/for Google! Here is the story: Kevin Rose is officially a Googler http://mashable.com/2012/03/16/google-hires-kevin-rose/

  4. Im still not familiar with Digg. Maybe because, I didn't like its layout or something. And honestly, I didn't understand the logic of having a Digg account.. :-( Sad, but I am hearing several great words about it. Will wait for further updates and maybe I will like it better. Hehe

  5. There was a time when Digg seemed to be ruling the Internet world. Now being sold for a measly 500K, well, just goes to show that somebody or something cannot be at the top of the world forever.

  6. I hope Digg continues to have good service, even after the buy-out.

  7. OMG!!!
    what happened wit Digg??? It is really latest and interesting story in social media, hope!!! we'll have more amazing services from Digg.

    Thank you sharing with us. :)

  8. The seller understand more better why he sold digg for such prize but he said bigger thing is coming

  9. I have so much respect for Digg. I see results whenever I submit an article there. Betaworks better make a good job in rebuilding Digg and make it a lot better.

  10. haven't used digg before.. I agree with earnonlineng, sellers must have a reason for selling it in such low price tag.

  11. Digg is a really good source for social bookmarking or sbm, everyone should register in digg and add their link there so that it can be easily dug. :)

  12. yeah, heard about the sale... I've been using DIGG for a long time and hope the changes will not put many restrictions on its use...

  13. From $200M to $500k? Huge difference. The owners missed a really good selling opportunity there. :(

  14. Never used DIGG but it goes to show that nobody stays on top for a long time. Competition especially in technology is always stiff and one should be observant and ready for some changes.

  15. ..Social media is going to be with us for a long time now. Other famous social media websites like Facebook and Twitter integrate well with Digg. Content can be linked and shared among these sites. Tagging, following and link building, all can be integrated, which ultimately brings more people to read your content.

  16. wow!! i never expected it to sell for that price. i thought they will sell for millions of $$

  17. I'm not yet a member of digg. Maybe I should wait 'till it is launched on Aug. 1. :) {I'm still in the process of discovering new sites!}

  18. I´ve never used digg before but I´ll see how it changes. Maybe then they got me as a user! ;)

  19. I have to agree with Franc, $500k is quite low with such a website with an amazing stat. Nevertheless, changes are exciting and can be good. Let's see what this New Generation Digg can bring us.

  20. whoa! that's a lot of money! But then, Digg is popular but not raking all the money they should be getting :(

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