Slashdot Mirror
Website Builder Wix Acquires Art Community DeviantArt For $36 Million (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Wix.com has made another acquisition to build out the tools that it provides to users to build and administer websites: it has acquired DeviantArt, an online community for artists, designers and art/design enthusiasts with some 325 million individual pieces of original art and more than 40 million registered members, for $36 million in cash, including $3 million of assumed liabilities. Wix said that it will continue to operate DeviantArt as a standalone site, but it will also use it to boost its own business in a couple of ways. First, DeviantArt users will get access to Wix's web design tools to build out more dynamic online presences. These tools do not only cover design, but commerce and other features for running businesses online. Second, Wix will open up DeviantArt's repository of art and creative community to the Wix platform, giving Wix's users access to that work to use in their own site building. The deal will also include putting further investment into developing DeviantArt's desktop and mobile apps. (Today, that desktop experience is based on a very simple, pared-down interface that is reminiscent of the 2000 birthdate of the startup itself.)
...time to move.
what he said. tools.
Ah yes, geocities rises from the dead.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
Look at all that royalty free art work they just acquired. PAINT YOU MONKEYS!!! WIX NEEDS MORE ART!
I only visit for the amateur nude photography.
That's a lot of clip-art they've just acquired.
I had a dream, bright and carefree, but now there's doubt and gravity
Dice buys Slashdot, and there was not much rejoicing.
Even weird 4chan's been bought from its founder, and yet is running out of money in spite of being flooded with ads.
This is not a good trend. Has web site hosting just gotten too expensive to keep a good site alive anymore? or is it just a matter of getting too big and popular to keep costs down? DeviantArt is (was) a pretty cool site and community, but experience suggests little hope Wix is going to keep it that way... Wix has to make its ROI. That means the artists probably have to move somewhere else, which is fine I guess, unless it's only a matter of time before the new site gets too expensive to run and either dies or gets sold off.
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
It might be a good idea to change art hosting providers then... I'm sure every artist has given deviantArt a (non-exclusive0 icense to commercially display and use the artwork shown on the site, which means Wix can use that. And chances are, they'll let customers use some of that artwork on their website, both as a hook and a retainer (because the art can only be used on Wix hosted websites without obtaining a license).
And only Wix has access to unique artwork that only Wix customers can use, so it's more attractive to join Wix.
Meanwhile, everyone who posted art on the site sees their work ripped off and used on customer's web sites.
40 million users for $36 million? It has been quite the long time since I've been a site sell for well below a dollar per user. dA really sold themselves really fucking short on this one.
Today, that desktop experience is based on a very simple, pared-down interface that is reminiscent of the 2000 birthdate of the startup itself.
You mean one that actually works, as opposed to useless eye-candy bullshit that was made by people that really want to make fake UIs for movies and TV shows?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I think they need to clarify immediately what they mean by that, whether it's art that users have explicitly open sourced for stock use (a common thing there, artists allowing other artists to use their work as input material for photomanipulations) or if they are insinuating that everything is up for grabs, which would be a violation of everyone's copyright. I suspect it is the former, but they need to clarify to avoid a panic among the DA userbase.
The stuff I have on there is copyrighted and specifically not allowed for stock use without permission. Allowing Wix users to use the work on their own sites does not seem to be a valid extension of the permission given to DA to use the artwork on its own pages and promotions.
Major company acquires famous early 2000 era website, decides to update the looks to be modern and trendy... Slashdot Beta, anyone?
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
It's not a bad idea in principle, but have you ever had the displeasure of actually using a site developed in Wix?
It's not that it's bloated so much as it is obese. I once saw a Wix site take more than a minute to load. I'm amazed they're still in business.
Call the local high school and hire one of the kids to snap a small business site together for you. Everyone wins.
Required reading for internet skeptics
I dunno. A lot of the artists would probably like a way to jazz up the sites (hideous) interface and get some proper payment/subscription options. That would push it into (virtual goods) Etsy territory.
Also, they could rebuild the site in Wix and it couldn't be any worse than it is now.
I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
...the market value of a significant fraction of the worlds anime, hentai, and furry porn
Good to know, I guess?
-Styopa
there is a long-time builder of vehicle and industrial filters called, of course, WIX. I am and remain shocked they have not filed a trademark case.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
The content providers on DeviantArt seem to get the short end of the stick.
The value in DeviantArt is in the content and Wix is giving that away for free.
Yes, copyright protection only exists for large corporations, and even at that it's still hardly workable. Since the "John Doe" subpoenas haven't found much favor in the courts it's hardly even worth trying to identify individuals. Personally, and speaking as a content creator, everything I do I CC0 because people are going to steal it if they want to, and I may as well benefit from any potentially wider distribution.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
That means the artists probably have to move somewhere else, which is fine I guess, unless it's only a matter of time before the new site gets too expensive to run and either dies or gets sold off.
Or... it's not a new site, and it all collapses into something like facebook. I am not on it, but it's harder to avoid it. I quit using instagram (for that reason, and because it's toxic) and I do use whatsapp to keep in touch with several friends in different states in a group chat. It does bother me that fb owns them though. It seems like only a few companies will 'own' the majority of the content of the internet, at least in terms of how the masses consume it.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.