Business punk
“If we were as big as Facebook, the world would be a better place” – Reddit is expanding into Germany
The Reddit headquarters in San Francisco
© Reddit / pr
From nerdy memes to photos from grandma’s album to hard discussions about corona measures. Reddit is not as well-known as Twitter or Facebook, but the social network is still one of the 20 most visited websites in the world – and is head-to-head with Netflix in the global ranking.
By Katharina Boecker and Jonas Bickelmann
Today Reddit officially launches in Germany. An office in Berlin is currently being set up. Reddit would like to serve the German community and advertising customers more intensively. After the US, UK, Canada and Australia, Germany is the first non-English speaking market Reddit ventures into. According to its own statements, the website has more than 50 million daily active users in more than 100,000 sub-forums, so-called subreddits.
Users sometimes discuss very specific topics there. Acquaintance from real life hardly plays a role, but all the more a function with which posts – these can be videos, links, surveys or text contributions – can be marked as more or less popular. An arrow up for a video by Susanne Daubner, who explains the youth word “Cringe” in the daily news. Or a down arrow for the “Octopus making friend” clip about an octopus. The up and down votes determine the visibility on the overview pages.
University start-up as a global success
Reddit was founded in 2005 by American college friends Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian and Aaron Swartz. In 2006 they sold it to the Condé Nast publishing house. After a hiatus, Huffman has been back at the top of the company as CEO since 2015.
In an interview with “Business Punk” magazine, CEO Huffman spoke about his plans for global growth – with Germany supposed to play a key role. In the most important market behind the Anglo-Saxon countries in terms of reach, Reddit wants to grow more strongly in the future. Even before the announcement, the German user base had grown by 47 percent compared to the previous year, the company said.
Focus on community
Huffman told “Business Punk” that there are already half a dozen new employees for the German office. It opens in the Mitte district. Only some of the newcomers in the nearly 1,400-strong team will focus on the German market, for example in advertising sales . “Engineers will not necessarily do Germany-specific work.” About a third of the employees at Reddit now work completely independently of the office location.
Other social networks are of course much more widespread. Facebook reports about 40 times as many daily active users. “If we were as big as Facebook, the world would be a better place,” said Huffman. Reddit stands for a feeling of community and belonging more than other social networks. In particular, he warned “Business Punk” about TikTok. “Teenagers and children send their voice, face and location directly to China.” There is too little discussion about the dangers of the video app.
Meme pioneers
At the beginning of the year, Reddit made headlines because users in the sub-forum WallStreetBets agreed to drive the shares of the chain Game Stop to unexpected heights. Short sellers had bet on losses. “WallStreetBets was fantastic,” said Huffman in an interview. “The only upset are traditional financial institutions. And it should because it’s a power shift.”
Huffman also claims another innovation: “We are definitely the pioneers of the meme,” he said. Today he’s a big fan of the picture jokes. When they came up, he thought they were the end of Reddit. After all, they were a move away from text-based discussions. As is well known, things turned out differently. Meanwhile, the exhilarating Wholesome Memes sub-forum has become Huffman’s favorite subreddit.