Online art community DeviantArt, the home of 40 million registered members, has been acquired by Wix.com.
Yesterday the leading global software platform for small businesses, website builder Wix, acquired the online art community DeviantArt, for the tidy sum of $36M. Home to more than 40 million registered members and some 325 million individual pieces of original art, the sale of DeviantArt also included $3 million of assumed liabilities.
Founded in 2000, the word-of-mouth success of DeviantArt was bolstered by roughly $13.5 million from backers such as Autodesk, DivX and individual investors. However, the value of DeviantArt before the sale remains unknown.
So, what does the sale mean for users? Wix has already said it intends to continue to operate DeviantArt as a standalone site, but that it will also use the platform to boost its own business.
For example, DeviantArt users will be able to access Wix's website builder tools in order to create a stronger online presence. Wix will also open up DeviantArt's vast repository of art to the creative community on its own platform.
The DeviantArt community is talented and robust and hungry for additional product expertise
“Over its 16-year history, DeviantArt has built an impressive online community that is incredibly loyal, highly engaged and regularly produces stunning art and design,” says Avishai Abrahami, co-founder and CEO of Wix.
“The DeviantArt community is talented and robust and hungry for additional product expertise. We understand their passion, share their creative vision and are excited to offer the power of the Wix platform to their millions of artists.”
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Dom Carter is a freelance writer who specialises in art and design. Formerly a staff writer for Creative Bloq, his work has also appeared on Creative Boom and in the pages of ImagineFX, Computer Arts, 3D World, and .net. He has been a D&AD New Blood judge, and has a particular interest in picture books.
