Kevin Rose: Redefining News via Digg.com
Kevin Rose was featured on the cover of BusinessWeek for the August 14, 2006 issue (see above). The cover text was “How This Kid Made $60 Million In 18 Months”. The story mainly covered his success as a young entrepreneur and explained how he risked it all to make Digg.com a reality. It also says he lost his girlfriend during the launch and that money meant for a house deposit payment was instead used to fund his idea.
Since Digg.com was launched on November 1, 2004, it has made him an internet celebrity. Digg combines social bookmarking, blogging, RSS, and non-hierarchical editorial control. According to a recent article from TechCrunch, Digg will soon be adding an Images category on top of the existing News, Video and Podcasts. Here is an overview of Digg from Crunchbase:
Digg is a user driven social content website. Everything on Digg is user-submitted. After you submit content, other people read your submission and “Digg” what they like best. If your story receives enough Diggs, it’s promoted to the front page for other visitors to see.
In the fall of 2004, Kevin Rose came up with the idea for Digg. He found programmer Owen Bryne through eLance.com and paid him $10/hour to develop the idea. In addition, Rose paid $99 per month for hosting and $1,200 for the Digg.com domain. In December of 2004, Kevin launched his creation to the world through a post on his blog.
In February of 2005, Paris Hilton’s cell phone was hacked. Images and phone numbers from the phone were posted online and it didn’t take long for a user to post the link on Digg. The site started to receive an enormous amount of traffic and it was then, Rose says, he saw “the power of breaking stories before anyone else.”
Digg has been a force ever since. Acquisition offers have been made, Rose was on the cover of BusinessWeek and according to Alexa, Digg is in the top 100 most trafficked sites on the internet. The success hasn’t come without its share of problems though. The site has had to face services aimed at gaming the way stories hit the front page, as well as a user revolt. Digg has however been able to get over these hurdles as it continues to be one of the social news leaders.