Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

StumbleUpon Claims They've Stumbled Onto Profits

Posted by Unknown on from the thought-you-were-dead dept.

cagraham writes with this excerpt from Technology Advice: "In an interview with Bloomberg, CEO Mark Bartels says that StumbleUpon is now profitable, and expects to grow their revenue by 33% this year, up to $40 million. The service has been around since 2001, was briefly owned by eBay,and earlier this year cut its staff from 120 to 70. According to Bartels, a huge increase in mobile usage has led to the turn-around, and they now have over 100,000 advertising clients. Still, they didn't provide any hard profit numbers to Bloomberg, so you'll have to take them on their word that they've successfully monetized."

31 comments

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. Yet again you are the product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Note that they say "Although they now have over 100,000 clients – some of which pay up to $75,000 for just a few days of advertising...". This means that if you use their service you are the product that they are selling to their clients.

    1. Re:Yet again you are the product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But $40 million profit from 100,000 advertisers means they're averaging $400 profit per advertiser? That's not a lot for the overhead.

    2. Re:Yet again you are the product by DeSigna · · Score: 1

      It's 40 million in revenue, not net profit. They're charging $400 per advertiser on average, if the numbers are accurate.

    3. Re:Yet again you are the product by flimflammer · · Score: 4, Funny

      So I'm to understand you just learned how advertising on the Internet works today and couldn't wait to share your knowledge, yeah?

    4. Re:Yet again you are the product by Amouth · · Score: 2

      Which just makes it worse. For each advertiser/customer there is a fixed minimum admin/overhead cost.

      the fact that they cut from 120 to 70 people and didn't die, tells me at a minimum they focused on streamlining the overhead.

      Still would be curious to see real numbers.

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    5. Re:Yet again you are the product by adolf · · Score: 2

      What I see:

      With only 70 mouths to feed, it takes $40,000,000.00 to turn a profit?

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
    6. Re:Yet again you are the product by Amouth · · Score: 1

      Yea, a truly low margin business

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  3. Hilarious! by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 0

    StumbleUpon Claims They've Stumbled Onto Profits

    Ha! I see what you did there.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Hilarious! by JustOK · · Score: 0

      I've reddit, but don't understand

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
  4. stumbleupon saved my life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I get really bored sometimes. This button helps with that.

  5. More like a cult than Apple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The ONLY place I've ever interviewed that had a more stuck up vibe than stumble-upon was a neighborhood coffee bar in Seattle.

    Facebook? Google? Apple? nowhere near as cult-like.

    I wonder what they put in the coffee...

    1. Re:More like a cult than Apple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The pictures of their "engineering" staff shows them all using MacBooks. Of course they're a cult.

  6. Re:Maybe It's Like Craigslist? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The secret sauce is in the prostitutes.

    I thought most prostitutes had you cum on their tits not in their snatch.

  7. I have no idea what StumbleUpon is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Other than that site that I've never whitelisted in NoScript.

    1. Re:I have no idea what StumbleUpon is by mpeskett · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's a toolbar button that takes you to a semi-random web-page, picked based on other people clicking the buttons to say that they like it, and also to put it into a category. In practice it ends up like channel surfing for the internet - keep hitting the button until you see something that looks like it might be half interesting, then move on as quickly as you arrived. From what I've heard from site owners, it's a good way to direct a spike of traffic to a single page but a lousy way to actually increase your readership.

      If they've now monetised it successfully, presumably they've stepped up how aggressive the paid-for insertions are since I last used it. They were already somewhat jarring - the quality level on the whole wasn't high but the ads were always a moment of "Who in the name of the blind idiot god submitted this bullshit? Oh, another ad, fuck that, moving on"

    2. Re:I have no idea what StumbleUpon is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The insane level of advertisements are exactly why I stopped using the service in the first place.

      They aren't even subtle. You get random "buy this product at (ludicrous price)" garbage all the time. Any semblance of discovering random neat stuff vanished in the oceans of adds years ago. I can't believe it has gotten better, especially since it's now actually profitable.

    3. Re:I have no idea what StumbleUpon is by Demonantis · · Score: 1

      I have used stumble upon for years and I don't think I see much advertising. I have ad block on so is that it? I also block the websites of stuff that really Im really not interested in stumbling to with the thumb down menu?

    4. Re:I have no idea what StumbleUpon is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah, pretty much a lot of inserted ad pages now, youtube videos that are actually comemrcials, etc.

    5. Re:I have no idea what StumbleUpon is by JeanCroix · · Score: 1

      I thought there had to be more to it than that. I guess I've never been bored enough to resort to a "take me to a random website" button.

  8. SPAM pays? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Probably because of the SPAM they send out. After receiving a total of 2 emails from them in 2012, I've received 7 in the last few months. Pass.

    1. Re:SPAM pays? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone was clearly searching for penis pills online recently.

  9. Where am I? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I found this website slashdot.org via StumbleUpon, and it's terrible. Would not recommend StumbleUpon.

  10. Re:Maybe It's Like Craigslist? by steelfood · · Score: 1

    So they let you stumble upon prostitutes? You usually need to pay extra for that. Oh, I see what you did there.

    --
    "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
  11. Re:Maybe It's Like Craigslist? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, there's some sort of sauce in the prostitutes, but I'm not sure it was a secret with all the neighbors home.

  12. cut its staff from 120 to 70 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So they "cut its staff from 120 to 70" - add that to the list. I keep a list of tech companies doing purges, and recall it when I hear there is a "shortage" of people in the technology industry.

    1. Re:cut its staff from 120 to 70 by TheRealDevTrash · · Score: 1

      SKILLED people.

      --
      I used to be /dev/trash but Slashdot no longer allows slashes for usernames.
  13. Re:Maybe It's Like Craigslist? by TheRealDevTrash · · Score: 1

    Depends how rich you are.

    --
    I used to be /dev/trash but Slashdot no longer allows slashes for usernames.
  14. Dude by atomicxblue · · Score: 1

    +1 Funny for the headline alone!!!