Betaworks has bought social news website Digg for US$500,000 only, a far cry from its US$175 million previous peak value.

Digg has been serving on the internet for seven years as a community based news-ranking website similar to Reddit, but lately it has been having a hard time to keep its once flourishing user base. This skirmish has been going on for a couple of years now and on October 2010, the company decided to pull out one third of its staff as an effort to save the firm.

Just recently, the company has decided to sell its once US$175 million-valued firm to New York-based Betaworks for only US$500,000.

Digg falls to Reddit. Image: Sean MacEntee via Flickr (CC)

“Digg is one of the great internet brands, and it has meant a great deal to millions of users over the years. It was a pioneer in community-driven news. We are turning Digg back into a startup. Low budget, small team, fast cycles. How? We have spent the last 18 months building News.me as a mobile-first social news experience. The News.me team will take Digg back to its essence: the best place to find, read and share the stories the internet is talking about. Right now,” Betaworks commented on its website.

On the part of Digg, its founder Kevin Rose said, “I’ve always been a fan of John’s [Betaworks CEO] product vision and the companies he builds, funds, and advises. John understands the real-time nature of the web and how to capture and surface trends as they occur. Given his experience with bit.ly, news.me, and Chartbeat I can’t wait to see what he does with Digg.”

It seems that Betaworks has been the company’s last resort. Let’s just hope that Digg made the right choice.

About Francis Rey Balolong

A coffee junkie who spends most of his time writing about the latest news on social media and mobile technology. I would definitely consider myself a nerd (in the coolest most hipster way possible). That being said, I love technology, music, writing, and all things mobile. Follow me: Google+ Twitter

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