BuzzFeed expanding, and taking the world more seriously
The social news website, BuzzFeed, which claims to have more 150 million people using it each month, has unveiled a major expansion plan thanks to a US$50million cash injection.
The social news website, BuzzFeed, which claims to have more 150 million people using it each month, has unveiled a major expansion plan thanks to a US$50million cash injection.
Andreessen Horowitz, a major Silicon Valley venture group, will invest US$50 million in BuzzFeed and one of its partners, Chris Dixon, will join the company's board.
Details of the investment, revealed on Sunday, were not disclosed. But said that the deal valued BuzzFeed at about US$850million.
BuzzFeed was launched by founder and chief executive Jonah Peretti, in New York, in the United States, in 2006, to cover topics such as politics, do-it-yourself, animals ands business.
"We created BuzzFeed because people still want to be informed, entertained and inspired, but the way they consume media has dramatically shifted," Peretti said on Monday.
"Today we think the time is perfect to grow our company, build our brand and greatly increase the content we are producing so we can be the number one digital media brand.
"The investment from Andreessen Horowitz will allow us to double down [strengthen] our company's mission by creating a new organisation and expand rapidly in all areas."
Dixon said BuzzFeed now had 150 million users each month, and was growing into a more serious news organisation since its debut, which had focused on offbeat and oddball coverage.
"BuzzFeed started out focusing on lightweight content like memes, lists, funny photos," he said. "This led some observers to dismiss BuzzFeed as a 'toy'.
"The company has since moved steadily upmarket, following the typical path of disruptive technologies. It now has an editorial staff of over 200 people covering a wide range of topics - politics, sports, business, entertainment, travel - and plans to invest significantly more in high-quality content.
"The most interesting tech companies aren't trying to sell software to other companies. They are trying to reshape industries from top to bottom."
BuzzFeed said it its expanded video division would become "BuzzFeed Motion Pictures", and "focus on all moving images from a GIF [or graphics interchange format, widely used on the web] to feature film and everything in between".
Its editorial team will expand to cover more breaking news, and the number of foreign correspondents will be doubled.
It will also launch a test kitchen and food lab in New York, "to create more original lifestyle content" and BuzzFeed International will set up news sites for India, Germany, Mexico and Japan.
