Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian acquire Digg

Here’s a blast from the past: Digg, one of the web’s early news aggregators, is now back under the ownership of original founder Kevin Rose. Notably, he’s joined as co-owner by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian (both pictured above).

Digg and Reddit were once fierce rivals in the online social news aggregation space, launching within a year of each other some two decades ago. The two platforms enjoyed similar trajectories in the intervening years, going through various owners and spin-offs. But Reddit’s endurance has been most notable, as the company finally went public last year in a bumper IPO and its user-growth has continued upwards in the following months.

Digg, for its part, hasn’t stood the test of time quite so well. The company was split into parts in 2012 and sold to incubator Betaworks, with LinkedIn and the Washington Post acquiring some of the assets. Digg later raised a strategic round of funding from USA Today owner Gannett, before landing in the hands of digital advertising company BuySellAds which acquired a majority stake in 2018.

A ‘fresh vision’

Digg never soared to the same heights as Reddit, which is why Rose and Ohanian have now joined forces to “revive” the platform with a “fresh vision to restore the spirit of discovery and genuine community that made the early web a fun and exciting place to be,” according to a press release issued today.

Rose says that he has been approached “at various times” through the years with a view toward buying Digg, noting that it never felt like the right time.

So why now? It’s a combination of reasons, according to Rose, who says that the existing social media landscape has become toxic, messy, and riddled with misinformation — with AI well-placed to address that.

“Just recently we’ve hit an inflection point where AI can become a helpful co-pilot to users and moderators, not replacing human conversation, but rather augmenting it, allowing users to dig deeper, while at the same time removing a lot of the repetitive burden for community moderators,” Rose said.

Ohanian, for his part, has dipped in and out of Reddit through the years, originally leaving in 2009 before returning as chairman in 2014 and then stepping down from the board altogether in 2020. And just this week, Ohanian joined Frank McCourt’s bid to buy TikTok’s U.S. business.

“Online communities thrive when there’s a balance between technology and human judgment,” Ohanian said. “We’re bringing Digg back to ensure that balance exists. Kevin and I are here to build something better than what social platforms are offering today. AI should handle the grunt work in the background while humans focus on what they do best: building real connections.”

Both Rose and Ohanian have invested in other companies through the years, as individuals and through institutional funds. This experience has now intersected, with True Ventures, which counts Rose as a partner; and Ohanian-founded Seven Seven Six investing in Digg.

While Rose will serve as Digg chairperson and advisor, and Ohanian will sit on the board, the new incarnation will be led by CEO Justin Mezzell, a “longtime collaborator” of Kevin Rose and “seasoned product design leader,” according to the press release..

A new version of the Digg platform is touted for launch soon, with invites being rolled out in the coming weeks.