Website Builder Wix Acquires Art Community DeviantArt For $36 Million (techcrunch.com) 63
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.)
The end is nigh... (Score:5, Informative)
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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.
Agreed, definitely time to move.
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CC0 (Score:2)
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.
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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.
they also stole their name (Score:2)
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.
"These tools do not only cover design..." (Score:2)
Wix? (Score:2)
Ah yes, geocities rises from the dead.
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Well well well (Score:4, Funny)
Look at all that royalty free art work they just acquired. PAINT YOU MONKEYS!!! WIX NEEDS MORE ART!
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PAINT, YOU MONKEYS!!!
Thank you. That made me laugh.
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Yes, look at all those mpreg Optimus Prime pictures they just got.
There's art on DeviantArt? (Score:2, Interesting)
I only visit for the amateur nude photography.
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I only visit for the amateur nude photography.
Amateur? Often pretty classy stuff, actually. What's whack is all the "My Little Pony" stuff... TONS of it.
Powerpoint watch out (Score:2)
And so it goes... (Score:5, Informative)
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 [theverge.com] 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 [wikipedia.org]. 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.
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> is it just a matter of getting too big and popular to keep costs down?
Yes. Content Management, specifically, is difficult to scale cost-efficiently with their technical debt. DA has a massively complicated custom PHP framework (patched together), only uses remote developers, and paid below-average. It's as bad as you might think.
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When a company grows, they usually end up hiring an MBA for $300K who will tell them they can save $250K by firing two developers.
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4chan may not be a good example. A good proportion of the user base uses ad-blockers, is young and has little disposable income, and generally just pirates everything anyway. Plus they are extremely fickle, changing loyalty at the drop of a hat, which tends to be quite often with all the drama that goes on over there.
DeviantArt seems to have done okay at helping artists get paid. A lot of them have Patreon accounts now and do commissions. It's the site itself that is finding it hard to get a share of that i
Re:And so it goes... I hope it's not what I fear.. (Score:2)
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.
Might want to move providers... (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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I think that any court or arbitrator would read that and see "For the sole purpose of enabling us to make your Content available through the Service," then slap Wix if they attempt to commercially use things people have posted - nevermind that there's no claimed license to sublicense said right to other parties.
That said, yes. Time to go. At this point someone can build it better.
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Too Cheap (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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Another way to look at it: deviantArt is a top-100 site in the USA and top-200 globally. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/... [alexa.com]
desktop experience? (Score:2)
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?
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Yeah, a clean interface that is actually rather snappy rather than one that bogs down your web browser if you have multiple pages open, opens links in a timely manner when you click on them, and frames the content appropriately instead of showing a page where you can see the content if you squint hard enough past the ads, the navigation panels, and other bullshit that many/most "modern" websites put out.
Clarification needed on the use of DA users work (Score:2)
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
Hmm... (Score:2)
Etsy (Score:1)
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.
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It's more like if someone has posted a picture of fine art they have created, you can order a print or maybe even the original for a higher price.
So now we know... (Score:2)
...the market value of a significant fraction of the worlds anime, hentai, and furry porn
Good to know, I guess?
The biggest losers (Score:1)
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.