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I don't think reddit can be profitable. The moment it is the userbase will move on to the next thing. A new site can spring up over night. A new reddit could be coded in weeks. its all a matter of people choosing to congregate there. This is an ongoing process that is constantly happening. Message boards are popular, and they're cheap.

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>> A new reddit could be coded in weeks.

Well, it wouldn't take that long, given that the entire Reddit code base is open source: https://github.com/reddit

Really, anybody can literally clone Reddit anytime they want to.

But not only is it likely impossible for a competitor to attract a significant portion of the Reddit user base, what would a competitor do assuming they did manage it? All a competitor would have done is bought themselves a money-losing operation. Unless you're a charitable billionaire or a well-funded non-profit organization, why would anyone want to do that?

I don't think it's do much a company could the over reddits marketshare. Its that there's comment sections and forums every where. If/when reddit dies there will be increased traffic to other forms of blogging/commenting/posting. And eventually a new website will fizzle to the top just out of chance (in the same way reddit did).

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