An anonymous social app that thinks it can work in Saudi Arabia

When Fizz quietly released a statement in Saudi Arabia in mid-March, founder and CEO Teddy Solomon didn’t expect the app to take off as it did. Within 48 hours, the app reached number 1 overall in the App Store charts, and users in the country have sent more than 1 million messages. For an anonymous social app that started on college campuses, it was an amazing start.

Solomon and his co-founder, Ashton Cofer, started Fizz in 2022 while they were students at Stanford, before dropping out. After raising $40 million and launching on 700 campuses, the app has been expanding beyond its college roots with Fizz Feed, a feature that opens up the platform to non-students through location-based communities. Think of it like Reddit, but without the ability to create or join topic-specific communities. Saudi Arabia – where Fizz currently holds the No.

“We’ve always known that our main goal is to be a community-produced product, rather than an app to connect with college people, and now we’re doing it,” said Solomon.

Fizz has not previously talked about its global expansion.

Solomon said that when he attended a conference in Dubai, he saw opportunities for Fizz to expand to the Middle East. Soon after, Fizz’s sales analyst Michael Fonseca moved to Saudi Arabia to connect with the area and better understand the culture, paving the way for Fizz’s international launch.

Mike was welcomed with open arms,” ​​said Solomon. “I think [Saudi Arabia] it has changed a lot in recent years.” The country is “jumping now,” Solomon said. “Business is booming. The social situation and the social situation are on the rise. Snapchat is big there. And social media apps are big in the region, whether it’s Snap, or WhatsApp, or TikTok – any other app it might be.

This change in the country’s reputation is deliberate. In 2016, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a government plan called Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to reduce the country’s financial dependence on oil. The strategy involves modernizing the country’s image – women can now legally drive, for example – and investing in Western technology companies, such as Google and Uber. Recently, the crown prince launched a government-funded AI company called Humain.

Despite these changes, Saudi Arabia remains an absolute monarchy, ruled by a royal family that suppresses free speech. In 2024, the Saudi government sentenced Manahel al-Otaibi to 11 years in prison for “terrorism” for tweeting about women’s rights and posting photos on Snapchat in which she was not wearing the traditional abaya, according to Amnesty International.

Operating in Saudi Arabia, Fizz should be aware that the kingdom can monitor its app for offensive posts, demand that certain content be taken down, or arrest someone based on their Fizz posts. Solomon doesn’t have a clear plan for how Fizz will handle such situations.

“The answer is, [we will] cross that bridge where we arrive.” “We have a lot of confidence in our guides. We represent the people in the region in a strong and satisfactory manner and ensure that we comply with the laws of the region and the laws of the country. “

Solomon said Fizz has invested heavily in Arabic natural language processing tools to support its content moderation efforts. The company also onboarded “hundreds” of volunteer moderators from the Saudi Arabian Fizz community. Fizz uses a similar strategy in its college communities – it uses AI content moderation tools, but also seeks volunteer moderators who have a better understanding of the nuances of the institution’s culture, giving them more context when making moderation decisions.

Fizz says he has never received investment from any Saudi Arabian organizations and has never been in contact with any members of the government.

“There is a lot of care for their community,” said Solomon. “There is a lot of pride in their country, a lot of pride in the city they live in, and they love the stadium.