Social news aggregator and discussion forum Reddit has opened its Australian office as part of an ongoing international expansion push.
The physical office, located in Sydney’s harbourside Barangaroo precinct, will house a team tasked with expanding the company’s community engagement and advertising push.
One expert says the company could be a tough competitor to incumbents Facebook and Google.
Australia is the fourth largest market for Reddit, which already boasts 52 million active daily users globally. The expansion follows the establishment of offices in Canada in March and the United Kingdom last year in September.
Its most popular thread in the country, r/Australia, has around 700,000 members.
Currently, Australians spend 31 minutes per day on average on the platform and contribute 158 million posts. Around 62 percent of users are aged between 18 to 34, and 28 percent between 35 to 49.
Reddit also claims that 40 percent of its users are not on Twitter, 20 percent are not on Facebook, 23 percent are not on Instagram, 51 percent are not on Snapchat, and 70 percent are not on TikTok.
The company hopes that this differentiating factor, along with the younger age bracket of its users, will appeal to advertisers.
“From building out our highly engaged Australian communities to finding homes for local brands on the platform, this launch is just the beginning of our investment in the market and key to our wider international vision as we continue to scale Reddit at pace.”
“Reddit is a cultural phenomenon and a great platform for brands wishing to connect with customers, fans, and advocates who influence brand loyalty and purchase decisions,” said advertising agency UM’s U.S. Chief Digital Officer, Joshua Lowcock.
“As an Australian ex-pat living in New York, I have seen first-hand the success clients have had working with Reddit,” he said in a statement.
Rob Nicholls, associate professor of regulation and governance at the University of New South Wales, said it was a “logical step” for Reddit to expand, and that the platform had a unique offering.
“The users of Reddit do not overlap neatly with Twitter or the Facebook offerings—which include both Facebook and Instagram. This means that they represent a potentially new base to which advertising can be targeted,” he told The Epoch Times.
“The proposition to advertisers will be that the Reddit subgroups already identify key interests of the group members and that the advertising will be associated with moderated content,” he added.
“This has the potential to be quite compelling in a crowded, but risky sector.”
Nicholls said Reddit could also offer more transparency around programmatic advertising options—essentially automated digital advertising formats that can target consumers based on interests.
“For example, advertising stockbroking services on r/AusFinance is likely to offer a far more precise target than other advertising platforms,” he said.
