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Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M

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Re: Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M

#31

Post by pjc50 »

kijin wrote: post #11
wmeredith wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having moved in Deviant Art circles (some time ago, admittedly) I'd say one reason for the low price might be that, somewhat like Reddit, the core values of the community make it challenging to monetize.

Yep, it would be hard to get away with ugly, intrusive ads when your users are obsessed with aesthetics. I also can't imagine the print-selling business reaching the kind of scale that today's VCs would like to see.

What the parent comment means is that there's a lot of cheesecake and not-quite-porn on DeviantArt. Although it's actually more censored in that regard than Reddit.

Re: Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M

#32

Post by anilgulecha »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #18
blackhole wrote: post #10

One potentially alarming sentence in this article is "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." Exactly what do they mean by that? Will it be opt-in? Will it only cover art that's already under Creative Commons? Will be it all Creative Commons? Does a Wix site count as commercial use? I can't i…

I had the same reaction. I could totally see them taking all the CC licenses and open it up as a stock image repository. This could go two ways. One, they open it up and its a total free for all, and as a Wix user, I can just go take someone's images and use them on my site royality free, which is downright scary. Two, they take control of all the work that's under CC, involve the artists and offer them a percentage…

> One, they open it up and its a total free for all, and as a Wix user, I can just go take someone's images and use them on my site royality free, which is downright scary.

Why is that scary? It's the point of CC licence. All they'll have to do on the using site is add an attribution (for ex CC-BY-SA).

It's the intention of CC to allow gratis usage and sharing.

Re: Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M

#33

Post by charlesdm »

petercooper wrote: post #30
charlesdm wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when does revenue matter? That's like selling a car dealership that does $100mm a year for $450mm, when the profit is only, say, 5% per car sold.

My point is merely that the multiple seems healthy, but sure, if we do it on likely income instead then it's an even higher multiple that'll be well above typical acquisitions of small online communities or media sites.

I think they actually (over)paid (?) a good amount for a website that isn't growing significantly. But hey, public tech companies are held to different standards / analysed using different metrics.

Re: Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M

#34

Post by bhouston »

Seems like a low valuation as they raised $10M in 2013 from Autodesk:

https://techcrunch.com/2013/09/26/deviantart-autodesk-fundin... https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1402519/000140251913...

I can not figure out what the valuation was of DA when it got the Autodesk investment.

I also notice that ArtStation.com seems to be rising on DeviantArt.com but still a way to go: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/deviantart.com http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/artstation.com

Re: Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M

#36

Post by DanBC »

lambada wrote: post #28
kijin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot unilaterally change the license on someone else's work. A lot of images on DeviantArt are under very restrictive licenses. I'm assuming they will present an option for artists to allow their work to be used on Wix sites in exchange for royalties, with the middleman taking a percentage of said royalties.

Well that depends on the terms the uploader agreed to. The license displayed for works is, as I understand it, the license that applies to visitors/viewers not necessarily for deviantArt itself.

This line is in the current TOS:

> DeviantArt does not claim ownership rights in your works or other materials posted by you to DeviantArt (Your Content).

Here's the rest of it:

> 4. Copyright

> DeviantArt is, unless otherwise stated, the owner of all copyright and data rights in the Service and its contents. Individuals who have posted works to DeviantArt are either the copyright owners of the component parts of that work or are posting the work under license from a copyright owner or his or her agent or otherwise as permitted by law. You may not reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, or prepare derivative works based on any of the Content including any such works without the express, written consent of DeviantArt or the appropriate owner of copyright in such works. DeviantArt does not claim ownership rights in your works or other materials posted by you to DeviantArt (Your Content). You agree not to distribute any part of the Service other than Your Content in any medium other than as permitted in these Terms of Service or by use of functions on the Service provided by us. You agree not to alter or modify any part of the Service unless expressly permitted to do so by us or by use of functions on the Service provided by us.

Re: Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M

#37

Post by [deleted] »

lambada wrote: post #28
kijin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You cannot unilaterally change the license on someone else's work. A lot of images on DeviantArt are under very restrictive licenses. I'm assuming they will present an option for artists to allow their work to be used on Wix sites in exchange for royalties, with the middleman taking a percentage of said royalties.

Well that depends on the terms the uploader agreed to. The license displayed for works is, as I understand it, the license that applies to visitors/viewers not necessarily for deviantArt itself.

[deleted]

Re: Website builder Wix acquires art community DeviantArt for $36M

#39

Post by kakarot »

neom wrote: post #8

From 2001-2007 I worked on helping build the community at dA. Had such an interesting and unique childhood and teenage years due to deviantART (and IRC). I owe everyone from that time a huge thank you for helping me become who I am today. It lost all it's magic (for me) when Scott and Eric Kolb left. Angelo is an absolutely amazing guy and I really really admire him but it was pretty sad to watch the community die. F…

Thank you for your role in creating such an amazing community. Things definitely began to decline post '07 and I eventually retired my dA accounts back in '12... But you're right, the experience it offered was completely unique and will be a subject of my nostalgia for the rest of my life. I met so many great friends through common interests, and would never have continued my interest in writing without it. And I almost certainly wouldn't be working as a web developer today.

I am currently drafting what I think could be this generation's dA, improving upon some of its shortcomings and offering new collaboration tools.

If you have the time and think you could provide some insight, I would love to email you some questions about your experiences building that kind of community, because it is exactly the kind of community I wish to serve.

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