‘Reddit Live’ tool pushes everyone’s favorite news sharing site in a bold new direction
Tom Cheredar
Community news sharing site Reddit is known for its simple user interface and the easy with which people can submit something for the community to judge and discuss. But that doesn’t mean the site isn’t willing to forge new ground, as evident with its latest feature addition.
A week after launching to the public, Reddit’s general manager Erik Martin tells VentureBeat the company’s new liveblogging tool Reddit Live is seeing plenty of traction.
Reddit Live is the news-sharing site’s solution for managing the specific type of reader submissions that require constant, continuous updates. And while it was initially prompted as a tool to help prevent the spread of misinformation via a regular Reddit submission, the Reddit team is now seeing people use it for multiple scenarios.
“We think of it as a tool to help streamline a chaotic torrent of information,” Martin said in an interview with VentureBeat. “Breaking news is a great example of such a situation, but so is a sporting event, a charity event, or even something like PAX tickets going on sale.
“We’re also already seeing people using it like a chat room or as group commentary during a TV show.”
Reddit told VentureBeat a day after launching, readers created 3,579 Reddit Live threads, with 66 of those seeing at least 100 concurrent viewers at their peak. The company also revealed that it’s seen a total of 155,907 updates posted from all threads, with 92 of those having 100 or more updates each.
“The most updated threads are almost all TPP related; with ‘Twitch Plays Pokémon Black 2 Updater’ being the [highest] at 23,547 updates,” Martin said. “The /r/UkrainianConflict thread just broke 10,000 updates in it so far during its five months of existence.”
We’ve included an interview with Martin below that covers the future plans for Reddit Live, how users are responding to it, and how the team sees the tool evolving in the future.
VentureBeat: Why launch a tool like this that encourages people to live-update, and how is the Reddit Live tool equip to deal with misinformation? Does creating a tool specifically for live updates take care of some of the problems Reddit has observed with past live update posts?
Erik Martin: We saw huge demand from both readers and posters for all kinds of constantly updated text posts, whether breaking news or coverage of sporting events. We are just providing a more robust way for users as well as professional journalists to manage this type of dynamic content. We have mechanisms for readers to flag Reddit live streams for a variety of reasons.
VentureBeat: What’s the long-term plan for Reddit Live? I know it operates outside of the regular Reddit site, in some respects, but do you guys see it being a core part of the service if it proves popular?
Martin: It’s way too early to tell. When we first added the ability to make text posts we had no idea they’d quickly become over one-third of all the “links” on the site. Similarly, I don’t think anyone anticipated that a really simple and reliable image hosting service [Imgur] coming along would so dramatically increase the popularity of image-based subreddits. but it wouldn’t surprise me if certain elements of Reddit live make their way into the existing Reddit toolset.
VentureBeat: What other types of Reddit submissions has the team observed as distinct, and what’s the possibility that the team will build new tools for other distinct submission types?
Martin: We think of it as a tool to help streamline a chaotic torrent of information. Breaking news is a great example of such a situation, but so is a sporting event, a charity event, or even something like PAX tickets going on sale. We’re also already seeing people using it like a chat room or as group commentary during a TV show.
VentureBeat: In terms of the business, Reddit has done a lot over the last year to build its sales division and increase efforts around gift exchanges/meetups. How do you plan on monetizing Reddit Live content/submissions in a way that’s tasteful and generally acceptable to the Reddit community as is done with native/self-serve ads?
Martin: It’s still early but we have already seen Reddit live used in our sponsored headline ads. Bill Gates used it to highlight a variety of content to raise awareness in an advertising campaign he created around Malaria during Mosquito Week: http://www.redditmedia.com/mediaembed/2489wb
VentureBeat: What kind of traction – number of submissions, breakdown of topics being discussed, etc. – has Reddit Live seen while in beta over the last few months? Today? Is there anything you’ve observed thus far that’s been surprising to you or the team?
Martin: It was surprising that people used Reddit live in the beta in such an ongoing and continuous manner. For example, the Ukraine conflict live stream has been going on for four months and has never really dropped below 200 users at any given time. In hindsight, it makes sense, but we didn’t envision that a single Reddit live stream would be used continuously for that long.
SoundCloud, Which Wants Big Music Deals, Hires Big Music Executive
Peter Kafka
SoundCloud, the music streaming service that’s trying to negotiate deals with the big music labels, may have made that task a bit easier: It has hired one of the label’s key executives.
The Berlin-based company has hired Stephen Bryan, who until yesterday was heading up digital business at Warner Music Group – and negotiating with SoundCloud.
Warner is one of the three big labels talking to SoundCloud about a deal that would give the service some rights to play its catalog, in exchange for revenue-sharing and an equity stake.
Bryan, who has worked at Warner for close to two decades, will head up biz dev and strategy for SoundCloud, which raised $60 million near the end of last year.
SoundCloud has been positioning itself as a sort of “YouTube for audio” and lets users post and share music files. In theory, it’s not supposed to be a platform for copyrighted music, though lots of music acts and their labels have already been using the company as a marketing platform.
My understanding is that the company isn’t trying to create another on-demand service like Spotify, Beats Music or Rhapsody, which let users listen to any song they want. Instead, SoundCloud appears to be haggling for deals that would give them the ability to stream some of the label’s catalog. However, for businesses that like to stream music into their stores with as much musical variety as possible, this may not be what they go for. There are articles, like https://cloudcovermusic.com/music-for-business/spotify-other-services/, that discuss other streaming services that can be used for commercial use and SoundCloud may possibly be one of them.
One big sticking point: How to deal with user-created mash-ups of multiple songs – one of SoundCloud’s most popular genres.
Earlier this year, SoundCloud was in sales talks with Twitter, but that deal fell apart.
Facebook’s Slingshot app now lets you react to reactions
JOSH ONG
Facebook has released the first big update to its Slingshot photo messaging app, which launched last month. Now, you’ll be able to reply to friends’ reactions to your photos and videos with a reaction of your own.
Similar to Snapchat, Slingshot allows you to draw on photos and add text. The app differs, however, by requiring friends to send a photo back to see your own content and by letting friends send quick reactions to your photo. Now that you can react to reactions, you can start an infinite selfie loop with your friends.
Facebook has also added a My People tab to Slingshot to make it easier to see who you’re messaging with. The find friends and contacts feature has also been improved.
So far we’re only seeing the update on iOS, but the Android version will presumably get the new features soon too.
Boris Johnson tries to distance himself from idea of driverless London buses
Alex Hern
Replacing London’s driver-operated buses with driverless vehicles would provide large cost savings as part of a “paradigm shift” in the way people travel, according to a controversial passage in a document published by Boris Johnson this week.
However, the loosely worded job-cutting suggestion had to be swiftly disowned by the mayor’s office on Thursday, even though the document in which the futuristic idea was aired was published in support of Johnson’s 2050 transport plan the day before.
Discussing trends in transport, the document supporting the plan heralded a future in which buses might glide around the capital with no drivers – there are currently 22,500 of them – a generation after conductors largely disappeared across most of London’s bus routes.
It said that driverless technology of the type being developed by Google would provide “large cost savings for buses while delivering a faster more efficient service,” and added that it would become possible to provide what it called “taxi like” services “at reduced costs”.
A day after the document was published, the mayor’s office moved to distance itself from the remarks.
A spokesman said “there are no plans for automated buses” in the capital, and that any references to “autonomous vehicles” in the report “should be seen in the context of automation on the tube”. Controversy about driverless technology is nothing new in London, where there has been a long battle to introduce automation on the underground. With advancements in this technology being made every day by the likes of Torc Robotics and others, the day when autonomous vehicles will be a prominent part of our lives and make a positive impact on how we travel and commute is soon upon us.
Boris Johnson promised in 2012 to introduce driverless trains to the underground, in a bid to reduce the power of the trade unions and end what he described as “pointless” tube strikes.
Currently only the Docklands Light Railway runs with no drivers in London, although that network still requires a member of staff on each train for safety.
The Victoria line is viewed by some transport observers as the most likely candidate for a driverless “upgrade”, because it already uses an automatic system that performs all the functions of the driver, except for the opening and closing of the doors.
Under the heading “Will vehicles still need drivers?”, the supporting document nevertheless continues elaborating the benefits of autonomous vehicles: “helping us reach our goal of eliminating death and injury on the roads … offering a convenient alternative to private ownership, reducing the demand for parking … [and] extending access to opportunities for the young, elderly and those with mobility difficulties.”
Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, said that he was “dubious” that the outlined visions will come to pass. “We don’t have a lot of confidence in anything that comes out of TfL, to be honest, and the fact that they’re suggesting it means it’s almost certainly likely not to happen.
“Who knows with technology, but some of the simplest things, they still can’t do. The best example is voice recognition technology.
“If you’ve got it on your car … it’s rubbish. If you’ve got it on your phone, it’s probably worse. They’re all crap, aren’t they? None of them work, and they can’t even get that right. And they expect people to get into driverless cars?”
This week, the business secretary, Vince Cable, said the government would aim to promote driverless cars in Britain, as he announced a review of the laws that make them illegal and promised to allow their testing in three cities next year.
Ministers also created a £10m fund to support the development of British technology in the area.
In early July, a transport expert with the ear of City Hall published a study calling for driverless buses in the capital. Professor David Begg’s report, “A 2050 Vision for London”, was commissioned by advertising firm ClearChannel, and had a foreword from Peter Hendy, TfL’s commissioner.
Begg wrote that “the same technology that will bring autonomous cars will make bus operations better. When buses have the same autonomous, communicating power that cars will have, they will be able to drive safely much closer to each other, too.
“Picture a dedicated bus rapid transit lane with moving buses queued up end-to-end. In this world, cars may start to function like buses, but buses could come to work like trains. And they are a lot cheaper to deploy.”
Begg also predicted the end of taxi driving as a career. “Taxi fares are expensive in London. One of the main costs is the wage/return to taxi drivers. Passengers in an AV world will be able to remotely call a driverless taxi to take them to and from their destination …
“The great promise of autonomous cars is not that we could each own one – the 21st century’s version of owning your own Model T, or your own colour TV, or your own PC – but that no one would need to own one at all.”
Foursquare’s upcoming reboot will let you become an expert in categories and neighborhoods
JOSH ONG
Foursquare has outed a new expertise feature in the soon-to-launch revamped version of its location app.
Almost like playing a really mundane RPG, users will gain expertise on Foursquare by adding tips to venues. When others like and save your tips, you’ll gain extra points. Once you’ve leveled up, your tips will include a note that they come from an expert. Expertise can be earned for types of places, neighborhoods and cities.
Foursquare says expertise has been one of the most popular features during testing of the new version. While it does seem like an interesting alternative to points and badges, it’s also designed to get you producing more content on the platform as opposed to just checking in. I’m personally looking forward to becoming an expert in Donuts.
Last week, Foursquare revealed its new logo, which draws inspiration from superheroes, and more details about how the new app will work. Check-ins will move exclusively to the separate Swarm app, while the main Foursquare app will focus solely on local discovery.