1+ BILLION pageviews per month. With a team that can kick enough ass to produce those metrics in such short time, doesn't seem so risky.
It doesn't take a kick-ass team to put up a link farm and spam it out. It takes a kick-ass team to profit from it and not tank the reputation. Digg failed. Reddit is struggling. I'm not sure 9gag will do any better.
disclaimer: I obviously dont work for 9gag, but I know the founders, since they are from the same yc batch.
haters gona hate, who cares?