The Burying of Digg, by the Numbers

The social news site, in a different time, tried to sell itself for $300 million.

Digg

This afternoon, Digg announced that it's been acquired by Betaworks -- for a purchase price, The Wall Street Journal reports, of $500,000. Not $500 million, mind you; $500,000. While the tone of the acquisition announcement is sunny ("we couldn't be happier to announce," etc., etc.), the purchase price serves as a reminder of how far the ur-social news site has fallen since its Halcyon days. Days before Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit came along to bury it.

Below, the rise and fall of Digg -- by the numbers:

• Years the site has existed: 8
• Years since founder Kevin Rose's (in)famous BusinessWeek cover, "How This Kid Made $60 Million in 18 Months": 6
• Years between that cover's publication and Rose's resignation from Digg: 5
• As of today, the total number of story submissions on the site: 28 million 
• As of today, the total number of Diggs on the site: 350 million 
• As of today, the total number of comments on the site: 40 million 
• Number of monthly visitors at the height of the site's popularity -- the end of 2008: 30 million 
• Number of monthly visitors at the end of 2010: less than 15 million
• Number of monthly visitors in May 2012: 7 million
• Years Digg has been trying to sell itself to a larger company, according to some reports: 6
• Rumored price tag of a failed 2007 acquisition effort: $300 million
• Rumored price tag of a failed 2008 acquisition effort -- this one by Google: $200 million 
• Estimated valuation of the company in 2008: $167 million
• Amount of a rumored acquisition offer from Al Gore and Current TV: $100 million 
• Amount of Digg's first funding, provided by Rose himself: $6,000
• Funding received a year after Digg launched, in 2005: $2.8 million
• Total funding received from Marc Andreessen, Pierre Omidyar, Reid Hoffmann, and others since Digg launched: $45 million
• Investment funding received in Digg's last round: $5 million
• Days elapsed since that last funding round was announced: 365
• Percentage of Digg workers laid off in 2009: 10
• Further percentage of Digg workers laid off later that same year: 37
• Number of Digg employees hired by Social Code, a digital subsidiary of The Washington Post, in May 2012: 15
• Percentage of overall Digg staff remaining after the Social Code hiring: less than 50
• Number of Digg staffers who will stay on with the product when it moves to Betaworks: 0