Wix Bought DeviantArt for $36 Million

One of the biggest and most powerful web platforms for artists was sold to a huge web-site building service.

Techcrunch reports that Wix.com has acquired DeviantArt, an online community for artists, designers, and art/design enthusiasts. Devianart is a huge platform with 325 million individual pieces of original art and more than 40 million registered members. The website was purchased for $36 million in cash.

DeviantArt was first founded in 2000. This website along was a real hub for professional and amateur artists, hosting millions of works. The company had raised about $13.5 million from backers that included Autodesk, DivX and individual investors. No investment was made in marketing or advertising. All growth is entirely organic. Wix said that DeviantArt will continue to operate as a standalone site. There will be a couple of changes also: 

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.

That’s another area that Wix has been expanding: just last month the company acquired Flok, a provider of mobile CRM and loyalty services, to expand Wix’s mobile commerce offerings.

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.Techcrunch

Techcrunch

“We founded DeviantArt to enable the creative spirit in everyone, creating a platform dedicated to the vision and talent of the community which could be shared with the world,” said Sotira, in a statement. “This combined effort with Wix creates new opportunities for innovation never before seen on the Internet and an amazing super-charged offering to our community members. We look forward to being part of the Wix team, and we are humbled by the respect and love they have shown to our community.”

Angelo Sotira, co-founder and CEO of DeviantArt

 

 

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