Buzzfeed Net Worth 2024

BuzzFeed is one of the biggest entertainment and news companies in the United States. It is also known to be an Internet medium mainly focusing on digital media. Its headquarters are in New York. The first members of this Company were Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III in 2006. The idea was to track viral content on the internet. Another co-founder of this Company is Kenneth Lerer, who started as an investor but is now the executive chairman.

The original theme for this Company was online quizzes, but over the years, the Company has taken broader coverage. Their news covers politics, businesses, technology, and even animals. Over the years, Buzzfeed has received various accolades and recognitions.

Nevertheless, Buzzfeed is taken as an unreliable source of information by most US respondents.

Well, how well do you know about BuzzFeed? If not much, we have compiled all you need to know about BuzzFeed’s net worth in 2024, wiki and complete details. Well, if you’re all set, here is what we know about BuzzFeed to date.

Inception

Jonah Peretti is one of the founders of Buzzfeed, which was originally known as BuzzFeed Laboratories. He was working as the director of research and development and also OpenLab at Eyebeam before establishing this company. Before setting up the Company, he first tested with other viral media. He started Buzzfeed while working at Huffington Post together with John Johnson, his former supervisor, as a side hustle.

At first, they did no employ writers, only algorithms to gather stories around the web. In the initial stages, the Company launched BuzzBot, messaging client, which would then contents to users via a link. With time, BuzzBot was able to highlight the most popular links. Peretti then hired curators to help expound the available content. Ben Smith was hired in 2011 for this job.

The more the Company was growing, the founders saw the need to separate new and entertainment. The two were grouped into BuzzFeed News and BuzzFeed Entertainment Group, with another category, BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. The Company had a rapid growth as by 2016; it had spread to twelve countries, including Japan, Germany, Australia, India, Mexico, and Spain. With its growth, more employees were involved and had around 1700 employees by the end of 2017.

However, the Company announced to lay-off about 100 employees from the US, 45 from the UK, and another 100 from France in November 2017 and June 2018. Again in January 2019, it was announced that the Company would reduce its workforce by around 15%. The Company has signed with Universal Television to be producing content in relation to available stories.

Evolution

In 2008, the Company raised $3.5 million through Softbank and Hearst Ventures. The Company ran over 100 social media campaigns in 2011. It earned $15.5 million from New Enterprise Associates. The Company’s first acquisition was in 2012 when they purchased Kingfish Labs, which was initially founded by Rob Fishman. Torando Labs was acquired by BuzzFeed in October 2014 as their second acquisition. Next was HuffPost, which was acquired in November 2020, and Verizon Media was made a minority shareholder of the Company.

The Company produces various content on a daily basis where reporters, contributors, and the community are featured in their content. Although initially, Buzzfeed produced viral content, it has gone an extra mile to give more content. They went ahead to delete more than 4000 earlier posts to look more updated.

After beginning their news division in 2011, Ben Smith was hired as the editor-in-chief. Mark Schoofs was hired as the head of investigative reporting in 2013. By the end of 2016, the Company had over 20 investigative journalists. In 2015, a podcasting team was started, after which “Another Round” and “Internet Explorer” were launched.

The Company had over $100 million in revenue by 2014. NBC Universal made an equity investment of about $200 million in 2015. In 2019, Facebook funded two shows from Buzzfeed show. After the hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company announced to its employees a salary cut of up to 5% for the lowest earners and 25% for higher earners. On the other hand, Peretti said he would not be taking any salary until the pandemic is over. The Company had to shut down some of its divisions in UK and Australia.

Awards & Achievements

Buzzfeed has received several awards and recognitions over the years it has been operating. In 2017, it was awarded by Webby Awards as the Best News App and also Best talk and interview show. In 2018, BuzzFeed News had several awards like; National Magazine Award, George Polk Award, Michael Kelly Award, and was a finalist of Pulitzer Prize.

Net Worth & Earnings of BuzzFeed in 2024

As of 2024, Buzzfeed has an estimated net worth of about $1.5 billion. Having started their operations in 2006 is such a great fortune. The main source of their income is news broadcasting and sharing of different other contents.

They have been funded by different organizations, which have kept them going and expanding. With this huge amount, the Company has been able to acquire different companies. They also sponsor various shows through their website, which also earn them some money. They have streamed such video series as Tasty and Saturday Night Seder.

Buzzfeed is a company that has greatly grown over the years. It was started just like a side hustle, but with time, it had exponential growth and spread out to other countries. Although the Company has been faced with various controversies like plagiarism, unpaid contributors, hiring practices, they still press on to give the best to their fans. It is one of the best internet media and Entertainment companies known. Apart from its own grown, it has created employment for lots of people in different countries.