Digg’s MySpace Problem -- And What It’s Doing About It
There’s a lot of talk about tech IPO candidates lately. Conspicuously missing from those lists is longtime media darling Digg. Reportedly courted by Google in 2008, the five-year-old news aggregator has been elbowed out of the spotlight -- and traffic rankings -- by six-year-old Facebook and three-year-old Twitter. In other words, Digg has a MySpace problem. Unlike MySpace, however, Digg has no plans to passively watch its audience go elsewhere. It may have lost some of its first-mover mojo, but the San Francisco-based company -- which has 40 million registered users -- is actively working to get it back. For starters, Digg is planning to launch a spate of new Digg sites centered around niche content. To continue broadening away from its original base of men ages 18 to 34, Digg is “extending beyond our one-size-fits-all home page and atomizing content,” says Digg's chief stategy officer, Mike Maser. If you’re interested in rock climbing or knitting, Digg aims to have in-depth news for you to vote up or down on a separate home page.
