How Buzzfeed reached the top
Buzzfeed managed to be a globally distributed digital media powerhouse read by 79 million people every month in a only a few years. A fact which big companies and famous brands are trying many years to succeed. As the market changed, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti find the opportunity to join the “game”.
BuzzFeed has built its success by owning all the elements of a modern media business. More specifically BuzzFeed includes a global news team, its own video production studio, a sophisticated data operation, and an in-house creative ad agency. Peretti has pushed BuzzFeed to tailor its content to each emerging social channel, from Snapchat to Pinterest. And BuzzFeed is expanding globally, from the U.K. to Brazil, India to Mexico, Germany to Australia.
The fact that people wouldn’t want to leave their social apps, force Peretti to follow a specific strategy. Instead of trying attract viewers to its own website, the way most publishers do, BuzzFeed would publish original text, images, and video directly to where its audience already spent its time, some 30 different global platforms, from Facebook to the Russian social networks VK and Telegram. Rather than write one definitive article and publish it on every platform (the de facto standard in the media business), BuzzFeed would tailor content specifically for the network and audience where it’s being viewed.
As regards the funding, Buzzfeed in the round A at 2008 (July 9 raised a $3.5 million led by Hearst Interactive Media and Softbank. At 2010 (May 12) the startup raised an $8 million series B financing, led by RRE Ventures. BuzzFeed has raised a $15.5 million round of Series C financing, lead by New Enterprise Associates and followed on by Lerer Ventures, Hearst Media, Softbank and RRE Ventures. In Series D at 2013 (January 3) raised $19,3 million lead by New Enterprise Associates and RRE Ventures. At August 10, 2014 Andreessen Horowitz invested $50 million at BuzzFeed. One year later, at August 3, 2015 NBCUniversal invested $250 million and few days later at Aug 18, 2015 invested another $200 million. At October 21, 2016 NBCUniversal invested another $200 million into the digital publisher, at a valuation of around $1.7 billion.
