Reddit is setting up an office in Toronto, representing the social media giant’s first physical Canadian location.
According to a company announcement, the office will house management, sales, community, and engineering teams. A report from The Globe and Mail noted the office is already staffed with 10 people, with five additional hires expected to be made in the coming weeks, including a country manager.
“Canada is already home to a deeply engaged Reddit audience that is growing steadily by the day.”
Reddit is a social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website headquartered in San Francisco. Reddit users can submit content to the site, which are voted up or down by other members. Posts are organized by subject into user-created boards called “subreddits.” The platform played a significant role in the GameStop short squeeze earlier this year.
Reddit claims Canada represents the company’s third-largest market, behind the United States and the United Kingdom. The company said because of this, Canada is the “natural next place” for Reddit to establish a presence on the ground.
“Canada is already home to a deeply engaged Reddit audience that is growing steadily by the day and it is a top priority for us and our internationalization strategy,” said Reddit’s COO Jen Wong.
“Establishing a dedicated presence in the market will ensure best-in-class teams, tools and resources to continue to build out our growing user base and level-up our offering to local clients in a more focussed, nuanced way,” added Wong.
The Toronto team will be focused on helping Canadian brands use Reddit and will work with Reddit’s global team to evolve the company’s ads platform. Reddit says it is now “officially open for business in Canada.” Brands like Tim Hortons, Lenovo, and General Mills, among others, are already working with Reddit on this effort.
Reddit is one of several large international tech companies that are establishing a physical presence in the Canadian market. Over the last few years, these companies have flocked to Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, which are three of the country’s most prominent tech hubs.
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In Toronto, social media companies have ramped up their Canadian presence in recent weeks. This month, Pinterest revealed plans to expand its Toronto presence with 50 hires and an engineering hub in the city. Twitter is also looking to launch an engineering hub of its own in Canada and hire at least 24 engineers in Toronto.
HSBC, Punchh, Xero, and BFS Capital have also specifically looked to create engineering hubs in the city. Uber is currently working to expand its team in Toronto and has plans to double its size in the next few months.
All these new offices come at a time when many companies are still working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shopify has signalled that its remote shift will be a permanent one.
Reddit’s Toronto team is being managed by Reddit’s head of international, Tariq Mahmoud, who led Reddit’s 2020 expansion to the UK. Reddit’s Canadian sales team falls under the leadership of Reddit’s executive vice president and president of global advertising, Harold Klaje.
Image source Unsplash. Photo by Nadine Shaabana.