BuzzFeed plots overseas growth

US$50M boost will allow wider range of services

NEW YORK • the online home of quizzes, lists and, increasingly, serious news, got a US$50-million investment reported to value the company at US$850-million — or about half the New York Times Co.’s market capitalization.

The funding came from venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, whose partner Chris Dixon will join the BuzzFeed board, according to a blog post. The New York Times reported the valuation, citing a person familiar with the matter. Ashley McCollum, a BuzzFeed spokeswoman, said she couldn’t confirm the figure.

BuzzFeed, founded in 2006 by Huffington Post co-founder Jonah Peretti, has emerged as a viral website that averages 150 million visitors a month. By contrast, the Times gets 31 million unique visitors a month to its website, with a circulation of 2.5 million Sunday readers across print and digital. The Washington Post, acquired this year by billionaire Jeff Bezos for US$250million, averages 18.8 million visitors a month.

“The investment from Andreessen Horowitz really validates BuzzFeed, as a company and as an entity. It’s one of the most highly regarded investors in the Valley,” said Paul Sweeney, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. to autocorrect mishaps and quirky photo lists.

Andreessen Horowitz joins the rank of a number of BuzzFeed investors, including Hearst Corp., SoftBank Corp. and, most recently, an investor group led by venture firm New Enterprise Associates, which invested US$19.3-million in January 2013. Andreessen Horowitz’s funding brings

It’s moved from being a concept to a real

business model

“BuzzFeed has really proven itself to be a real business. It’s moved from being a concept to a real business model.”

BuzzFeed’s coverage includes everything from weighty political journalism and long-form stories that rival traditional publications BuzzFeed’s total money raised to almost US$100-million, up from US$46-million last year.

The funding will let BuzzFeed expand to Mumbai, Mexico City, Berlin and Tokyo and to convert its video division into BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, which will focus on everything from animated online images to feature-length films, the company said on Monday.

“We think the time is perfect to grow our company, build our brand and greatly increase the content we are producing,” Mr. Peretti, Buzzfeed’s founder and chief executive.

BuzzFeed relies on Facebook and other social networks to spread its articles and videos. At the end of last year, the company was forecasting revenue of as much as US$120-million in 2014, people familiar with the matter said then. The startup, which has more than 500 employees, is profitable, Mr. Peretti said in September 2013.

“We’re presently in the midst of a major technological shift in which, increasingly, news and entertainment are being distributed on social networks and consumed on mobile devices,” Mr. Dixon said in his blog post. “We believe BuzzFeed will emerge from this period as a pre-eminent media company.”

The site’s traffic has lured big-name advertisers like General Electric Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. Unlike traditional news sources, which have relied on banner ads, BuzzFeed established itself by making sponsored versions of its articles for advertisers, such as animated images that promoted Google+ Photos or a feature on winter attractions in New York that plugged the state lottery’s scratch-off games.

That model has caught on with other news organizations though critics such as HBO’s John Oliver have said the practice blurs the lines between news and advertising.