Fizz, an anonymous social app that started on college campuses, is making its way around the world in several ways. The Global Fizz feed helps the app reach a wider user base beyond the university community, and the app has enjoyed great success with its first international launch 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 so popular. Within 48 hours, the app was ranked #1 overall on the App Store charts. Solomon told TechCrunch that it remains No. 1 in the news category. He added that Fizz users sent more than 1 million messages last week.
“We always knew our big goal was to be a cross-generational social product rather than just a college social app, and now we’re finally executing on that,” Solomon said.
Fizz has never mentioned international expansion before.
Solomon and his co-founder Ashton Cofer started Fizz in 2022 while they were students at Stanford and then dropped out. After raising $40 million and launching on 700 campuses, the app is working to grow its Global Fizz feed, which allows even non-students to participate in the location-based community. Users can post using their handles, but can also remain anonymous if they wish. It’s similar to Reddit’s main feed, but like Reddit’s subreddits, it doesn’t have the ability to create or join topic-specific communities.
Solomon said he saw Fizz’s potential for expansion into the Middle East when he attended a conference in Dubai. Soon after, Fizz marketing analyst Michael Fonseca moved to Saudi Arabia to build relationships with the region and better understand the culture, laying the groundwork for Fizz’s international launch.
“Mike was really welcomed with open arms,” Solomon said. “(Saudi Arabia) seems to have changed a lot in recent years.” Solomon said the nation is “soaring now.” “Business is booming. The social scene and the social environment is booming. Snapchat is huge there. Whether it’s Snap, WhatsApp, TikTok, whatever the other apps are, social apps are huge in this area.”
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This change 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. The strategy includes modernizing the country’s image (for example, women can now drive legally) and investing in Western technology companies such as Google and Uber. Recently, the crown prince founded a state-owned AI company called Humain.
Despite these changes, Saudi Arabia remains an absolute monarchy ruled by royals who suppress freedom of speech. In 2024, the Saudi government sentenced Manahel al-Otaibi to 11 years in prison for “terrorism crimes” for tweeting about women’s rights and posting photos on Snapchat of her not wearing the traditional abaya, according to Amnesty International.
Fizz, which operates in Saudi Arabia, should be aware that the monarchy monitors the app for posts it deems offensive and may require the removal of certain content or arrest someone based on Fizz posts. Solomon doesn’t have a clear plan for how Fizz would handle such a situation.
“The answer is we’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he said. “We have a lot of confidence in our guidelines. We are very strict and we are adapting them in a way that satisfies the local population and making sure we are compliant with local rules and national rules.”
Fizz said it had never received any investment from Saudi Arabian companies and had never communicated with any member of the government.
Solomon said Fizz has invested heavily in Arabic natural language processing tools to support content moderation efforts. The company has also brought on board “hundreds” of volunteer moderators from the Fizz community in Saudi Arabia. Fizz uses a similar strategy in its college community. We use AI content moderation tools, but look for volunteer moderators who better understand the nuances of campus culture and provide more context when making moderation decisions.
“There’s a lot of interest in their community,” Solomon said. “They have a lot of pride in their country and the city they live in, and they love their platform. They want to keep it safe, and they get a lot of credit for doing so.”
