On Sunday, the social networking firm Reddit announced the acquisition of Dubsmash, a “short-form video social platform.” The terms of a contract were left disclosed. However while Reddit will integrate its video creation tools, Dubsmash will continue as a separate entity and retain its own platform and brand.
Here are the top 5 things that we can expect from Reddit’s acquisition of Dubsmash:
1. Dubsmash With a new look
The leadership team of Dubsmash, Suchit Dash, Jonas Drüppel, and Tim Specht, will join Reddit as part of the contract. As a standalone app, the short-form video social network will be enabled to continue its status. Reddit will very soon incorporate short videos into the main Reddit app’s content collection and thus make a place for the Dubsmash videos on its app. With the same leadership team and its role as a standalone app, with a few tweaks, Dubsmash will still run the same.
2. Reddit enters the short videos/stories market
The acquisition of Dubsmash has taken Reddit into the trending ‘stories/short-video’ segment, with Facebook and Whatsapp merging the ‘stories’ feature and Instagram coming out with a new’ Reels’ feature for short videos. If the discussion channel provides support for short videos, retention rates, and the content diversity within the platform will be improved.
This seems like a rational move by the conversation platform, taking into account that social networks that have adopted stories/short videos have seen a major improvement in the creation and user engagement of credible content.
3. Reddit to compete with TikTok
Dubsmash is now one of TikTok’s main competitors, even after battling for a few years, after a brief stint of success in 2015 during its first iteration as a lip-sync video app. Its shift to a social network began in 2017 and Dubsmash’s share of the short-form video market in the United States was second only to TikTok by smartphone installations by the beginning of 2020.
4. Reddit’s inclusivity statement
On a number of occasions, Reddit has been criticized for not doing enough to combat hate speech or providing adequate support to subreddit moderators threatened by racist trolls.
Reddit issued the statements that Dubsmash’s “communities are driven by young, diverse creators—about 25 percent of all Black teens in the U.S. are on Dubsmash, and females represent 70 percent of users. Dubsmash provides a welcoming platform for creators and users who are under-represented in social media.”
5. Reddit’s first significant acquisition in a 15-year History
The acquisition of Dubsmash, announced via Reddit’s blog on Sunday, is the famous website’s first significant acquisition within the 15-year history. With a strategic first acquisition now to extend its reach and with money at its disposal, Reddit priced at $3 billion last year it won’t come as a surprise if we see another big buyout in Reddit’s name soon.
