[thirstylink linkid=”259″ linktext=”Wix” class=”thirstylink” title=”Wix” data-thirsty_gct_link_id=”259″ data-thirsty_gct_link_name=”Wix” data-thirsty_gct_link_post_permalink=”/recommended/wix/”] continued its growth spree by buying the online artist community DeviantArt. DeviantArt is one of the internets leading communities for artists and web designers with over 40 million members and 325 million pieces of original art. The deal is reported to be for $36 million in cash and includes $3 million in assumed liabilities, or debts DeviantArt owed.
DeviantArt was founded by Scott Jarkoff, Mathew Stephens, Angelo Sotira, and others in August of 2000. The 16 year old community has grow primarily through word of mouth and has invested little in ads or other marketing. DeviantArt showcases artwork like photography, digital art, filmmaking, stock photography, and many other types of digital and downloadable resources. Wix is slated to continue running DeviantArt as a stonealone web property though obviously levering its community and resources to bolster Wix’s website builder.
With DeviantArt, Wix now has access to an extensive repository of art and other digital resources for users of Wix’s website builder to use while building their websites. The other more important piece of this deal that Wix now can leverage is the 40+ million users of the community that may be interested in either using Wix as a website platform or building Wix based websites for their clients.
“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. “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.”
Wix is a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq and is currently valued at $2.86 billion. If you’re someone interested in building a website with Wix, this acquisition will only give more features to the Wix website builder.
