Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, said at the Solana-focused conference Thursday that he will be investing in the development of a decentralised social media platform based on the Solana blockchain.
“One of the reasons I’m here is to announce — I have a venture fund called Seven Seven Six — we’re earmarking $50 million to invest in the next wave of social, built on Solana,” Alexis Ohanian said during a fireside chat with Solana co-founder Raj Gokal.
Ohanian’s venture business, Seven Seven Six, has partnered with the Solana Labs blockchain’s venture arm for a $100 million investment effort in decentralised social enterprises.
Seven Seven Six will invest $50 million and Solana Ventures will put up the remaining $50 million, according to the firms.
“With a high-performance blockchain like Solana, there is an unprecedented opportunity to fuse social and crypto in a way that feels like a Web2 social product but with the added incentive of empowering users with real ownership,” Ohanian said in a statement.
“We are at a pivotal inflection point in these early days of Web3,” he remarked.
In 2021, Statista estimates that social media advertising generated $153.7 billion in worldwide revenue. Meta Inc., formerly known as Facebook, relied on advertising for 85 percent of its revenue and is now looking to commercialise the metaverse, which Mark Zuckerberg refers to as the “successor to the mobile internet.”