Hi Charlie.
Charlie Cheever from Quora.
Hey .
Look excited, your supposed to smile you’ve got a vast audience out there.
Okay.
Do you have a lot to smile about, Charlie?
Yeah, I think so.
Well you’re the founder and the CEO.
No, I’m not the CEO.
You ‘re just the founder.
Adam D’Angelo, the other founder is CEO.
So do you have a lot to
smile about with Quora at the moment?
Yeah, I think things are going really well.
I mentioned on stage we had our highest traffic day ever recently.
How many people was that?
We don’t talk about numbers right now.
More than a hundred?
We don’t talk about numbers right now.
No?
Why?
Why?
I don’t know.
We just decided not to.
I am curious
though, a lot of people
talk about this website they
say it’s a big deal, if
it is a big deal why don’t
you tell people how many people come to the site?
I think he main
reason we decided to do
that is that we’re really focused
on quality and we think
that if stuff gets too
focused on other numbers that
are too orthogonal to
that, then we might lose our focus on like the.
But why did you mention that you had the highest traffic number then?
Because, I was
just trying to, like.
Make some conversation.
Yeah.
So, I’ve been to
Quora a couple of times,
and not probably as sophisticated a tech user as some of our audience.
What’s the difference between Quora and Wikipedia?
Well, I think some
of the things that make Cora
distinctive from most other sites
are, where a lot
of primary source knowledge.
So we’re really focused on getting the
stuff that’s in people’s heads
that isn’t on the Internet,
onto the Internet, and so
a lot of times,
people who are like the authorities
or experts will come write
sort of a definitive answer on
Quora that just wasn’t there before.
and so.
What do you mean definitive?
Well so, Chris Dixon
tweeted out this question about
the Patterson cycle, which is
this thing in technology where like
there’s sort of a boom bust cycle that lasts 14 years.
And then a bunch
of people sort of responded, sort of
explaining why they thought it
was that way and why this
thing lasted about 14 years, and
then Arthur Patterson, who was named after it, came and answered the question.
So that sort of is like pretty definitive.
But aren’t networks like CORA un-pattersoning
Patterson in the sense that
nothing is all don’t
think so because I think one
thing that we do is
emphasis real identity so everyone has to use their real name on the site.
Beyond just, like your
real name and your picture, we
also emphasize like your bios
and also your bios on individual
topics and so you
know, if you’re A
journalist by day, but then
you’re also an expert chef then
if you’re answering some question about
cooking spinach, then your expertise
in food would be highlighted.
Well, I consider myself
an expert in cooking, but my children strongly disagree.
Who decides there?
I think the answer
to that is basically like crowd sourcing, for the most part.
But with me, how would you
crowd source my knowledge of
cooking when there’s only three
people in the world who can comment on it?
I think that it,
you know, probably those three
people would have some
input and other people wouldn’t, and
then there wouldn’t be very much data, but it would show.
Well back to the distinction
between Wikipedia, I think one
of the things that I like
about Quora versus Wikipedia
is the difficulty in being anonymous, which
I think that one of the problems
with Wikipedia is one never knows
who’s doing the writing, which lends
itself to spamming and
lends itself to people who have particular biases.
Do you think that’s fair?
Well, you can actually be anonymous
on Quora, but you sort
of have to explicitly choose too be anonymous.
And I think, I
do think it’s nice on Quora
that it can handle questions of opinion.
And you can sort of take
the answers that you see there
with a grain of salt, because you know where the answers are coming from.
And so, if there’s a question
about politics and someone who’s
a democrat answers, but sort
of says who they are
and, you know, proclaims that
they are liberal, then you
know that that piece of
writing is going to have that
slant and you just sort
of accept that and understand that that’s their position.
But it’s not, sort of, neutral
in the same way that other things are.
The other big difference between Quora
and Wikipedia is that you’re a full profit company, right?
You’re in the business of making money.
Yeah, we like to be a sustainable business.
What would happen with Quora
if you sold yourself, like what
Huffington Post did, for
large amounts of money, or
TechCrunch for that matter,
given that your core content is user-generated?
Would you ever give any of the money back to the people who contribute to the site?
Well we have, I just
said on stage, we have an
explicit non-goal of selling the company.
So I don’t think that will happen.
But if it did?
But also people, it’s
their content and they’re free
to post it on
their blogs or post it
somewhere else and other people
are also free to take the content right now.
So no profit share, for
example, if you were
selling advertising off the back
of people’s content, you wouldn’t give them a percentage?
Because I like what you’re
doing as profit and
I think that if Wikipedia
gave some money back to its contributors, it would be a better website.
Yeah, well we don’t have
any advertising right now, and so you ‘re probably aware of that right?
Probably Chuck.
I think that’s something
I’ll look into, but right
now it’s to early that
you’ve been comment on that kind of stuff.
Well, thank you
so much for being so
cheerful and I will
look forward to …
…catching up with Quora in the future.
Thanks.
And good luck with the rest of the conference.
Thank you, Chuck.
Charlie Cheever from Quora.
Hey .
Look excited, your supposed to smile you’ve got a vast audience out there.
Okay.
Do you have a lot to smile about, Charlie?
Yeah, I think so.
Well you’re the founder and the CEO.
No, I’m not the CEO.
You ‘re just the founder.
Adam D’Angelo, the other founder is CEO.
So do you have a lot to
smile about with Quora at the moment?
Yeah, I think things are going really well.
I mentioned on stage we had our highest traffic day ever recently.
How many people was that?
We don’t talk about numbers right now.
More than a hundred?
We don’t talk about numbers right now.
No?
Why?
Why?
I don’t know.
We just decided not to.
I am curious
though, a lot of people
talk about this website they
say it’s a big deal, if
it is a big deal why don’t
you tell people how many people come to the site?
I think he main
reason we decided to do
that is that we’re really focused
on quality and we think
that if stuff gets too
focused on other numbers that
are too orthogonal to
that, then we might lose our focus on like the.
But why did you mention that you had the highest traffic number then?
Because, I was
just trying to, like.
Make some conversation.
Yeah.
So, I’ve been to
Quora a couple of times,
and not probably as sophisticated a tech user as some of our audience.
What’s the difference between Quora and Wikipedia?
Well, I think some
of the things that make Cora
distinctive from most other sites
are, where a lot
of primary source knowledge.
So we’re really focused on getting the
stuff that’s in people’s heads
that isn’t on the Internet,
onto the Internet, and so
a lot of times,
people who are like the authorities
or experts will come write
sort of a definitive answer on
Quora that just wasn’t there before.
and so.
What do you mean definitive?
Well so, Chris Dixon
tweeted out this question about
the Patterson cycle, which is
this thing in technology where like
there’s sort of a boom bust cycle that lasts 14 years.
And then a bunch
of people sort of responded, sort of
explaining why they thought it
was that way and why this
thing lasted about 14 years, and
then Arthur Patterson, who was named after it, came and answered the question.
So that sort of is like pretty definitive.
But aren’t networks like CORA un-pattersoning
Patterson in the sense that
nothing is all don’t
think so because I think one
thing that we do is
emphasis real identity so everyone has to use their real name on the site.
Beyond just, like your
real name and your picture, we
also emphasize like your bios
and also your bios on individual
topics and so you
know, if you’re A
journalist by day, but then
you’re also an expert chef then
if you’re answering some question about
cooking spinach, then your expertise
in food would be highlighted.
Well, I consider myself
an expert in cooking, but my children strongly disagree.
Who decides there?
I think the answer
to that is basically like crowd sourcing, for the most part.
But with me, how would you
crowd source my knowledge of
cooking when there’s only three
people in the world who can comment on it?
I think that it,
you know, probably those three
people would have some
input and other people wouldn’t, and
then there wouldn’t be very much data, but it would show.
Well back to the distinction
between Wikipedia, I think one
of the things that I like
about Quora versus Wikipedia
is the difficulty in being anonymous, which
I think that one of the problems
with Wikipedia is one never knows
who’s doing the writing, which lends
itself to spamming and
lends itself to people who have particular biases.
Do you think that’s fair?
Well, you can actually be anonymous
on Quora, but you sort
of have to explicitly choose too be anonymous.
And I think, I
do think it’s nice on Quora
that it can handle questions of opinion.
And you can sort of take
the answers that you see there
with a grain of salt, because you know where the answers are coming from.
And so, if there’s a question
about politics and someone who’s
a democrat answers, but sort
of says who they are
and, you know, proclaims that
they are liberal, then you
know that that piece of
writing is going to have that
slant and you just sort
of accept that and understand that that’s their position.
But it’s not, sort of, neutral
in the same way that other things are.
The other big difference between Quora
and Wikipedia is that you’re a full profit company, right?
You’re in the business of making money.
Yeah, we like to be a sustainable business.
What would happen with Quora
if you sold yourself, like what
Huffington Post did, for
large amounts of money, or
TechCrunch for that matter,
given that your core content is user-generated?
Would you ever give any of the money back to the people who contribute to the site?
Well we have, I just
said on stage, we have an
explicit non-goal of selling the company.
So I don’t think that will happen.
But if it did?
But also people, it’s
their content and they’re free
to post it on
their blogs or post it
somewhere else and other people
are also free to take the content right now.
So no profit share, for
example, if you were
selling advertising off the back
of people’s content, you wouldn’t give them a percentage?
Because I like what you’re
doing as profit and
I think that if Wikipedia
gave some money back to its contributors, it would be a better website.
Yeah, well we don’t have
any advertising right now, and so you ‘re probably aware of that right?
Probably Chuck.
I think that’s something
I’ll look into, but right
now it’s to early that
you’ve been comment on that kind of stuff.
Well, thank you
so much for being so
cheerful and I will
look forward to …
Cool.
…catching up with Quora in the future.
Thanks.
And good luck with the rest of the conference.
Thank you, Chuck.
Quora co-founder Charlie Cheever not only doesn’t want to sell his hot start-up but – as he told me backstage earlier this week at Disrupt – he even has an explicit non-goal of not selling the company.
Non-goals or not, Cheever has a lot to smile about. Traffic is up to record levels at Quora and the site continues to be a paragon of innovation in the social space. In this interview he explains the difference between Quora and Wikipedia, and we get into many other orthogonal discussions as well. But I wonder if Cheever is tempting fate by having such an explicit non-goal. After all, he’ll look ‘a right Charlie’ if Quora gets snapped up in the frenzy of acquisitions that will probably mark the post LinkedIn-IPO social marketplace.
