The dramatic short squeeze of the stock of video game retailer GameStop (NYSE:GME) this January was the moment when r/WallStreetBets finally transformed from a humble Reddit forum into a financial force that can no longer be ignored. But lost among the memes, trading app drama and hand-wringing over the sanctity of the stock market was one surprising outcome: GameStop’s share price didn’t just rise — the company actually listened to its many new retail investors and aggressively ramped up its strategy to focus on e-commerce. Rather than just a one-off market glitch, the investments made by r/WallStreetBets users resulted in the real transformation of a company that many in Wall Street had been predicting the demise of.
Related: GameStop inadvertently paves the way for decentralized finance