Over the past few years, Digg has become Silicon Valley's version of "The story that cried Wolf." Potential acquirers of Digg have been flirting with acquisitions, but none have materialized.
Recently, BusinessWeek reporter interviewed Digg CEO ay Adelson. He said the site was not for sale and that the company would focus on developing an independent business that would be as profitable as possible. That means the four-year-old Digg will scale back its expansion plans and focus first on boosting revenue and profits.
Recently, Digg began selling ads within its RSS feed feature. Companies are developing localized search engine , hope to develop more relevant and useful advertising. Within a month, Digg will strike partnerships with mobile and advertising providers to sell more ads on mobile. "We will invest rationally and focus on profit growth, which we have not done before," he said. He said the company had accelerated its pace of development because of the economic crisis. In September, Digg reported that the company's revenue had tripled. Next year, he predicts "at least another threefold increase." Earlier this year, he said the company would be profitable within two years. Now, he says he hopes to do it within a year.
In September, Digg received around $28.7 million in funding from venture Capital organizations Highland Capital Partners, Greylock Partners, Omidyar Network and SVB Capital. He noted that Digg is considering making its own acquisitions. Although the company has not completed an acquisition, it is looking for acquisitions. "All over the world, there are Digg clone sites. I will go into these markets to clean up these sites, and if I need more capital to complete the acquisition, I will continue to raise funds." If Digg is no longer A subject of acquisition, the company must be under pressure to increase, from user community make A profit. Although Digg claims 35 million monthly users, it had 16.3 million users worldwide as of October, up 31 percent from a year earlier, according to comScore. However, Digg stands by its statistics. He points out that comScore's panel method underestimates traffic to social networking sites. He noted that the company's statistics are based on data from Omniture and Quantcast organizations. But according to Quantcast, Digg advertised 21.7 million users as of November 30.
While international expansion is not currently a priority, Digg says its commitment to improving the site is more important than ever. In the coming months, Digg will roll out new features designed to appeal to users everywhere. "Right now, we have 15 to 20 pieces of work to do." Make the Digg site more social and more attractive content for users. If the strategy succeeds, it could help the company turn a profit as more users click on the page. "You can make money by attracting more users and running more ads." Recently, reports surfaced that Adelson and founder Kevin Ross, among others, were selling their shares. In response, he noted, "No one in the team sold shares. Kevin and I have a large stake in the company, and we believe it has a better future."
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