What Is Dubsmash? Reddit Buys App It Says a Quarter of Black U.S. Teens Use

On Sunday, Reddit announced it had acquired the New York-based company Dubsmash. Much like TikTok, its main rival, Dubsmash is a social media platform that allows users to create short videos of themselves lip-syncing over audio from songs, movies, TV shows, famous speeches, and other internet content. The clips—known as "Dubs"—can be shared with friends and users can explore content made by other users.

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The app, which is available on iOS and Android, allows users to add effects, filters, stickers, text, and other features to their videos. Users can comment on and like videos, as well as share clips to other social media platforms such as Snapchat, WhatsApp, iMessage, YouTube, TikTok, Musical.ly, Facebook, Twitter, Funimate, Flipagram and more. Dubsmash was originally founded in Germany by Jonas Drüppel, Roland Grenke, and Daniel Taschik before the company relocated to New York in 2016. While Dubsmash has been overtaken by TikTok in terms of overall popularity, it still retains a sizeable audience, with the company saying the app has been downloaded 350 million times, with 35 videos created every second on the platform. Notably, Dubsmash users are young and diverse with Reddit claiming that "25 percent of all black teens in the U.S." are on the platform. In addition, around 70 percent of Dubsmash users are female, according to Reddit. "Dubsmash believes in the power of representation through video. By empowering all creators and communities to thrive on the platform, we aim to celebrate each other's differences," the app's creators wrote in their Apple Store description. "Dubsmash's algorithms are designed to promote creativity and diversity. We support POC creators and aim to ensure a safe environment for all communities on the app." "We take your privacy seriously. Based in New York, we don't track your GPS location and we don't collect usage data for anything other than making the app work better for you and our communities." Reddit said Dubsmash's mission was to "elevate under-represented" creators noting that the company had built a "beautiful and fun" product. "Both Reddit and Dubsmash share a deep rooted respect for how communities come together," Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in a statement. "Dubsmash elevates under-represented creators, while Reddit fosters a sense of community and belonging across thousands of different topics and passions. It's clear that our missions closely align and that our community-focused platforms can coexist and grow as we learn from each other." Reddit said Dubsmash will continue to maintain its own platform and brand, although the two teams—numbering around 700 and 12 staff respectively—will now be working together. In addition, Dubsmash's video creation tool will be integrated into Reddit. "In our years of building Dubsmash, we've learned how video can spark creativity, unlock interactions, and deepen connections within communities" said Dubsmash head Suchit Dash. "We want to continue our journey to bring best in class video products to our users, and now Reddit users. We believe in the idea of connecting creators around interests and topics, something Reddit has pioneered, in our growing Dubsmash community."