Meme stocks show that ‘community’ is profitable: Reddit co-founder
Thomas Hum, 28 June 2021
As trading platforms like Robinhood create a rise in retail investor market participation and spark a renewed interest in shares of companies dubbed “meme stocks” like GameStop (GME), BlackBerry (BB), and AMC (AMC), the world of finance is seeing an intersection with the social media sphere.
“What you’re seeing is a much larger trend here,” Alexis Ohanian, founder of venture capital firm Seven Seven Six and co-founder of Reddit, told Yahoo Finance Live. “It is the intersection of community and capital. It’s the intersection of social media and finance.”
With online communities such as Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets fueling the meme stock craze, the movement has dismissed concerns of market manipulation. Jaime Rogozinski, who founded the subreddit in 2012, says he did it looking for a more active way to trade investment ideas within a community. The forum now boasts a community of over 10.6 million subscribers.
According to Ohanian, it is this sense of community and ease of communication, in tandem with a more accessible user experience for consumers, that has enabled this new era of trading to arise.
