The anonymous social app that he thinks could work in Saudi Arabia

Fizz, an anonymous social app that started on college campuses, has gone global in more ways than one. Global Fizz’s feed enables the app to grow beyond college communities and cater to a wider user base, and the app has made a significant milestone with its first launch abroad in Saudi Arabia.

When Fizz quietly debuted in Saudi Arabia in mid-March, founder and CEO Teddy Solomon didn’t expect the app to become as popular as it has. Within 48 hours, the app reached first place overall on the App Store charts; It’s still number one in the news category, Solomon told TechCrunch. He added that Fizz users sent more than a million messages in the past week.

“We’ve always known that our big goal was to be a social product for generations, not a college social app, and now we’re finally doing it,” Solomon said.

Fizz has not previously spoken about its international expansion.

Solomon and his co-founder, Ashton Cover, founded Fizz in 2022 while they were students at Stanford University, before dropping out. After raising $40 million and launching on 700 college campuses, the app is trying to grow its Global Fizz feed, which allows non-students to join location-based communities. Users have the option to post using their username, but can choose to remain anonymous if they wish. It’s similar to Reddit’s main feed, but without the ability to create or join topic-specific communities — the equivalent of Reddit’s subreddits.

Solomon said that when he attended a conference in Dubai, he saw the potential for Fizz to expand into the Middle East. Soon after, Michael Fonseca, a marketing analyst at Fizz, moved to Saudi Arabia to make contacts in the region and better understand the culture, paving the way to launch Fizz internationally.

“Mike has been welcomed with open arms,” Solomon said. “I guess [Saudi Arabia] It’s changed a little bit in recent years.” Solomon said the country is “on a leap now.” “Business is booming. The social scene and social scene is thriving. Snapchat is huge out there. Social media applications are witnessing a huge spread in the region, whether it is Snap, WhatsApp, TikTok, or any other application.

This transformation in the country’s image is intentional. 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. This 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. Most recently, the crown prince launched a state-funded artificial intelligence company called Humen.

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

Operating in Saudi Arabia, Fizz must be aware that the monarchy could monitor its app for posts it deems offensive, demand the removal of certain content, or even arrest someone based on their Fizz posts. Solomon has no clear plan for how Fizz will handle such situations.

“The answer is, [we will] “Cross that bridge when we get there,” he said. “We have great confidence in our guidelines. We are moderating very strictly and in a way that satisfies people in the region and makes sure that we adhere to the rules of the region and the rules of the country.”

Fizz says it has not received any investments from any Saudi entities and has not communicated with any member of the government.

Fizz has invested heavily in Arabic natural language processing tools to support its content moderation efforts, Solomon said. The company has also recruited “hundreds” of volunteer moderators from the Fizz community in Saudi Arabia. Fizz uses a similar strategy in its campus communities — it uses AI-based content moderation tools, but it also looks for volunteer moderators who have a better understanding of the nuances of campus culture, giving them more context when making moderation decisions.

“There is a great deal of care for their community,” Solomon said. “There’s a lot of pride in their country, a lot of pride in the city they live in, and they love the platform. They want to keep the platform safe, and they feel very honored to do that.”