Reddit Acquires Short Form Video Platform Dubsmash- The Biggest Rival of Tik Tok
Reddit has recently announced that it is looking forward to acquiring Dubsmash – a short video platform. The terms of the deal were undisclosed. Dubsmash is believed to retain its brand and platform, and Reddit would combine its video creation tools. The platform’s leadership team – Suchit Dash, Tim Specht, and Jonas Drüppel will soon work with Reddit.
The app has allegedly raised $ 20.2 million from various investors, including index ventures, lowercase capital, hardcore capital, Sunstone life, and Eniac Ventures.
About Dubsmash
Dubsmash is believed to be one of the biggest rivals of Tik Tok, which is a very famous short video app. Today, Tik Tok is banned in numerous countries. And Dubmash could take advantage of the situation. However, it has struggled for many years and experienced slight popularity—around 2015 as the first lip sync video app.
In the year 2017, it started transforming into a social media platform; its headquarters also shifted from Berlin to Brooklyn. At the beginning of 2020, Dubsmash’s share was only second to Tik Tok in the USA. It also allegedly held acquisition talks with snap and Facebook.
Black and Latinx users are the reason behind the success of Dubsmash. Tik Tok’s various high profile stars are generally white. However, Dubsmash is popular amongst Latinx and Black content creators.
Reddit acquires Dubsmash
The collaboration of the two apps gained quite an attention at the beginning of this year. The New York Times published an article regarding the dance moves by the Dubsmash stars who were black are appropriated very often by Tik Tok content creators. This means that they miss various opportunities, including brand deals, more followings, industry connections, etc.
However, Reddit has its separate issues regarding racism, and it has been criticized several times for not taking strict actions against hate speeches by racist trolls.
The previous year Alexis Ohanian the founder, stepped down and called for a black candidate to fill his position. This step was taken after the George Floyd incident, during The anti-racism demonstrations.
In the recent announcement, Reddit talked about its acquisition of Dubsmash. Huffman mentioned that Dubsmash elevates creators that are often underrepresented and since Reddit fosters A sense of belonging across various topics and passions. According to its claim, Reddit’s mission aligns with their community-focused platforms.
Reddit also mentioned that diverse and young creators drive communities in Dubsmash. Around 25 percent of all the black teens in the United States are on Dubsmash. Interestingly, the representation of female users is approximately 70 percent. Reddit also added that integrating with Dubsmash’s video tools will allow Reddit Express users in the most authentic and original ways.
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After Word
The usage of Reddit had sharply increased since 2017 when it launched native videos in the same year. It is growing at 2X in 2020 itself. Reddit’s content is mostly text-based; however, GIFs, images, and videos are shared from various other sources, which means that the integration with Dubsmash can help Reddit build its video platform.
