Reddit Inc. announced Monday that it has purchased a Dubsmash video sharing application to expand its presence in one of the hottest places on the Internet: user-generated video.
Reddit, 15, says Dubsmash – with its free, user-generated video creation and sharing – is the first major acquisition; the financial terms of the cash and stock transaction have not been disclosed.
Reddit San Francisco is known for its millions of billboards and digital city halls. Ask me what you want from celebrities, politicians and various experts. Earlier this month, the social media company reported for the first time that it had an average of 52 million active daily users in October, 44% more than a year earlier.
The user-generated video is the basis for the successful TikTok application, which Facebook Inc. has added to Instagram and
Snap Inc.
Snapchat to set up such services. Other popular platforms are those that allow users to stream live video, such as Amazon.com Inc.’s Twitch and
Alphabet Inc.
YouTube.
The transition to video will be more than just mobile communications, says Reddit CEO and co-founder Reddit.
Steve Huffman.
We’re just at the beginning.
Steve Huffman, co-founder and managing director of Reddit
Photo:
Zack Gibson/Getty Images
Reddit already allows users to download and view videos in real time, but editing capabilities are limited. When purchasing Dubsmash, Huffman said that Reddit would get a more sophisticated, user-generated video much faster than if he tried to develop it himself.
The cost of video continues to fall, its recording and encoding technology is becoming more efficient, and, as with advertising, video advertising is more effective, he said. They are more visceral and attractive.
Dubsmash, founded in 2015, was last estimated at $47.5 million in 2016 and, according to PitchBook, a private market data provider, had earned approximately $20 million by 2019. The Dubsmash application has been downloaded nearly 197 million times, according to estimates by Sensor Tower Inc, an application analysis company.
Dubsmash reports that about 30% of users log in daily to create videos. A company that does not make a profit but has grown word of mouth says it is trying to draw attention to under-represented creators and communities that are not visible in traditional social media.
Our goal is to show the other side of the internet, according to co-founder and president Doubsmash,
This is Dash.
He refused to give a figure for all Dubsmash users, but said that 70% of them were women and that about a quarter of all black teenagers in the United States were using the application.
Under the terms of the agreement, Dubsmash remains an independent request from
Apple Inc.
and Android devices, as well as the tools for creating videos will be included in the mobile version of the Reddit application. 12 Dubsmash employees, based in New York City, will join Reddit’s approximately 700 employees.
Reddit’s agreement with Dubsmash has already been reported in the trade publication Information.
According to PitchBook, since the last funding round in February 2019. Reddit is valued at $3 billion and has raised more than $550 million since its inception. Investors include Chinese Tencent Holdings Ltd, the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and a rapper.
Calvin Brodus,
better known as Snoop Dog.
Write to Sarah Eagleman at [email protected].
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