Storming Reddit's Moat

At the community level, then, Reddit presents an array of structural barriers to unbundling. Trying to compete with Reddit community-for-community will likely lead you down the wrong path.

Really good SEO is one of the truest moats that exist today.

The biggest and most relevant Reddit communities grow via organic search: they show up at the top of Google results for commonly searched words and phrases (think “personal finance”, “Game of Thrones”, “League of Legends”, etc.).

As the name implies, Reddit is designed to be read. People who only read along, but never participate are so integral to the platform that users coined a new term for them: “lurkers.”

The power of search makes the presence of an existing Reddit community a liability instead of an asset.

Contrary to popular belief, most users aren’t regularly commenting, upvoting, or interacting with other users. But most new products are designed for the posters and commenters since they are the quickest to try new things, and the ones you need to jumpstart a new product. So launching a product that makes it easier to do those things isn’t actuall... See more

In effect, an unbundling project has to overcome two different network effects on Reddit - the subreddit community itself, and the community’s connection to Reddit as a whole.

Other platforms like Facebook Groups, Twitter, or Discord, might feel faster, more lively, more engaging, and may work really well for small- to mid-sized communities. But they often break down once the community gets too big and the pace of conversation gets too fast, or when too many different communities spring up all around the same topic. The ... See more