Ex-internet start-up Digg's sale for $500,000 makes MySpace, Friendster deals look good

Washington, July 13 (ANI): The sale of Digg, a once prominent Internet start-up, for just 500,000 dollars has made the acquisitions of other fallen Web giants look respectable.

Digg raised 45 million dollars from its investors since launching in 2004, but now, its brand, website and its technology have reportedly been sold for a sliver of that to Betaworks, a technology development firm.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Betaworks intends to merge Digg into News.me, a start-up it launched last year that sends users a daily newsletter containing content shared by their friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter.

The demise of Digg isn't unique, as other stars of the Web have come crashing down viz. social networks like MySpace and Friendster, as well as Delicious, a social bookmarking site.

However, unlike Digg, none of those other sites crashed as hard. MySpace was sold last year in a deal valued at 35 million dollars; Friendster was sold in 2009 for 26.4 million dollars, while Delicious was sold for five million dollars last year as well.

Digg hit its stride in 2008 with about 30 million visitors a month, but it began to fall in 2010 due to traffic loss to Facebook and Twitter. Poorly received site redesigns also contributed to its collapse, and in December of last year, Reddit, a similar site, finally overtook Digg in traffic. (ANI)