Mark Evans

What’s Up with Techmeme?

For a Web site that’s so popular, Techmeme continues to remain a major mystery in how it operates and how well the business is doing.

Other than a rare video appearance, interviews and comments on blogs, Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera has kept things pretty close to the vest since the site was launched nearly two years ago. For example, how stories make it on Techmeme is still fairly unclear, although Rivera recently provided some insight here.

Aside from being the place to consume tech news, Techmeme’s unassuming operating style is probably part of its appeal. At a time when hype, attracting venture capital and large acquisitions are key elements of the Web 2.0 landscape, Techmeme and Rivera have quietly stayed the course.

As far as I can tell, Techmeme hasn’t grown much beyond Rivera. That said, the business seems to be gaining momentum if the number of sponsored space is any indication. There are now five slots compared with three when the program was introduced last September. Given Techmeme’s traffic and following, I suspect they’re much-wanted slots that demand premium prices.

In many respects, Rivera is the anti-thesis of how Web 2.0 and Techmeme operates because he doesn’t seem to be too concerned with fame, notoriety or fortune. Instead, he’s running and growing a solid business that meets his entrepreneurial needs. For that, you’ve got to give him a lot of credit.