Does anybody here post regularly on Medium? Can anyone name off the top of their heads their favorite writers on Medium? Would anybody pay for Medium?<p>I like Medium as a platform but there doesn't seem to be much beyond the occasional interesting essay or startup humblebrag puff piece about why culture is more than free donuts or whatever.<p>My problem with Medium is there is no way of establishing a reputation for quality. If everyone can post there then you're gonna run into some garbage, no matter what the sorting algorithm says are the "hot" stories. So without site wide quality control all it'll take are a few bad articles to bring down the perceived average quality.<p>So then what's in it for the writers? Build up an audience on a convenient, erm, Medium, then...leave? How else will <i>they</i> make money?
Step 1: Found successful startup (Blogger). Sell four years later to Google.<p>Step 2: Wait ten years. Then, repeat step 1 with similar idea but different branding (Medium).<p>At this rate, we have about 6 years until Ev does step 2 for Twitter. Maybe it'll be called Tiny :)
It's ridiculous how much of a bubble the web is in right now. Do you really think they well EVER earn $57 million back? In the age of ad blockers, ad networks are dying. How else will they monetize? Only time will tell.<p>Also, why is Medium so popular? It really doesn't have anything new or different than any blogging platform before it...almost any of the readers of HN could probably create a similar service if we wanted to, so why is Medium so popular? Maybe I'm just really out of touch but I just don't see the value in these websites. Sure they're popular now but for how long? Honestly, how much of their popularity is just because it's the "cool" "new" place to post on, and because everyone else is doing it so I should too?
I still fucking hate Medium. Why? It's bad for content creators. Why? Because url previews on HN/Reddit/etc say medium.com. Every damn medium.com link looks the same as others. No way to build your brand or identity. For the longest time the author's name wasn't even visible until the very teeny bottom.<p>I'm pro-author and pro-content creator. I don't believe that Medium is. They're just pro-Medium. Our interests are not aligned. Which is a shame.
I read today that the estimated valuation of Medium is $400 million. I find that astounding.<p>Bear in mind that Bezos bought The Washington Post, no slouch in the journalism world, for $250 million not too long ago.<p>How big is Medium's traffic? Monthly uniques? Ad revenue? Or any revenue?<p>Where is the <i>there</i> there?
"On what it will do with the money? Doyle says it will go to making Medium “the dominant pipeline for connecting quality content and conversation,” which is pretty broad."
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The content is decent, but the conversation aspect of Medium has a long, long way to go before it comes close to many other platforms.
It's an interesting service, though I can't personally see putting that much of my sweat into 2,000 word blog posts that I don't own.<p>But what is their game plan to monetize?
Twitter is starting to look something like Reuters real-time reporting network and event notifications. It basically replaces the headlines of the newspaper people used to see while walking down the street. It is a notification service which makes it a great platform.<p>Medium is trying to be the actual body paragraph of the newspaper[0]. They seek to provide content curation, search and monetization. They provide the analysis of the interesting topics you see on twitter. Twitter is diverse with people like Kim Kardashian to Noam Chomsky. Medium will let these people explain themselves in long form and introduce you to similar thinkers. For Noam Chomsky that might be other linguists or libertarians and for Kim Kardashian it might be a piece of cardboard, or goldfish. I don't know what the strategy is, but I would say 20/80 odds they crack the code. Long odds, but better than most start ups face. They need to:<p>* Find a way to pay users for content, or create a great incentive for them to continue delivering high quality content to them for free.<p>* Find a way to organize and display the content.<p>* Get people to pay for it.<p>Obviously a tall order. They are trying to be the people who figure out how to monetize without advertising traffic. I have no idea what they told investors, and frankly Ev Williams could say he was remaking Pets.com and he would get funded, but I suspect they have an idea for monetization.<p>[0] A newspaper was sort of link an internet website. It was made of something called paper and was delivered by actual people to your door. People used to use their hands to scroll through it. Push notifications and updates took ~24 hours to reach newspapers. Not much else is known about these ancient artifacts.
Could they be prepping for the war against ads and trackers? There's been a bit of talk about having a central paywall of sorts. One where I put money into a service and that service is responsible for distributing the money to the sites that I visit (that have signed up with said paywall service). Kind of like what Google has as an alternative to seeing its ads (can't recall the name). Medium would be an ideal platform for this. Put a monthly fee into medium (maybe you choose how much), or just give your credit card and set a cap on how much you can spend per month, and then when you visit posts on medium, the authors get paid out based on visits and percentage read (or something similar). That could have the potential to upend the indie blogger market right now. They'd have distribution, managed systems, and would get paid for their work.
I miss international support on Medium. Or maybe recognition? But also in terms of features, like national "communities" or filters. I've thought about posting there but recognize that brand as one aimed for quality long form posts, but can't be assed to write all that in English. :( I want to be able to visit a medium.com/ger, medium.com/swe, etc.<p>It's seemingly not even a topic brought up there in a FAQ or so. Funny, since I think it would open up many new markets.
Sometimes I get the feeling there is a business model in there somewhere trying to get out. Something that replaces magazines. I don't know if medium is it, certainly Blogger and Tumblr weren't, or the collection of things that is AOL these days.<p>Somehow a go-to-market strategy involving authors, editors, advertisers, and readers which gives everyone a really great experience. It is a tough nut to crack though.
Anyone have any ideas how long this will keep them going without having the start really monetizing? IMO, I think it's _insane_ that in 2015 companies can be given so much cash with a hope that they can become profitable.
With 57 million bucks you think they might be able to make it so all the text doesn't jump to the side when you click the page? That drives me nuts.
honest question: why does medium need to raise so much money?<p>Given that ev is behind it, I would imagine he has the financial resources to fund it himself AND more importantly, he has the connections within the silicon valley Illuminati (i.e. VCs, Tech Journalist, CEOs of various tech companies).