Is Kevin Rose worth one billion dollars?

I like the quote "Digg is a service similar to Trejdify" posted on blog.trejdify.com. I'm guessing Digg, even now, is quite a bit bigger than Trejdify.

Let's take a look at the submitter: SuperChihuahua "creator of Trejdify.com". Classy.

Great premise, horrid post.

True: Much hasn't been said about Google's acquisition of Milk and talent-capture. The Internet isn't entirely certain Rose is everything he's made out to be, and people often bring up the fact that he outsourced most, if not all, of Digg's creation as a means to downplay his capabilities.

It's easy to forget that Digg was an absolute powerhouse for years, and his Angel funding efforts have yielded great returns on top of that. Also, his network is vast, and he -gets- entrepreneurship. (See: Foundation [@Revision3]).

Will his fans rabidly follow him anywhere as the article suggests? Actually, yeah. Probably. His Diggnation live shows were epic, packed gigs. He has an audience and he has a voice.

But will all of this translate to net value for Google, or, more to the point, to a profitable Google+? I'm doubtful. Rose seems to flourish as a figurehead in a startup environment. But if Google was willing to buy Oink (rate anything in the real world!) and backed out of buying Digg (rate anything on the web!), my doubts appear rather unfounded.

Short answer: NO.

I remember Jason Calacanis mentioning Kevin was only able to get his first million out of Digg about three or four years after their first round of funding (and well before the Digg 4 fiasco). How is he going to make a billion out of something that isn't even his property?

Horrible horrible linkbait.

Here's the deep analysis from the article: "And as more people join Google+, more will follow, and in the end maybe Kevin Rose was worth $1 billion dollars."

No