4 ms·

DeviantArt has always been a nice community. I find it surprising that the price is so low given that they add a lot of value.

by omn1 10y ago

petercooper 10y ago
the deal will increase its revenue outlook by around $8 million So around a 4.5x revenue multiple, which doesn't seem bad for a business that isn't growing rapidly(?)
- charlesdm 10y ago
  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.
  - petercooper 10y ago
    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.
    - charlesdm 10y ago
      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.
  - elsewhen 10y ago
    many acquirers focus on revenue more than profits because once ingested, the cost-side of the business can change dramatically. according to quantcast, deviantart is doing over 40MM monthly uniques. i suspect it is that reach (and not profit or revenue) that wix is actually acquiring.
wmeredith 10y ago
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.
- kijin 10y ago
  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.
  - avian 10y ago
    > hard to get away with ugly, intrusive ads Deviantart has click-through ads that overlay the content on mobile and a big bright banner for registered users if they are using an adblocker. It seems they are already getting away with ugly and intrusive.
  - pjc50 10y ago
    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.
- scrollaway 10y ago
  Is it? dA is full of artists selling their art and users buying it. It's full of Patreons, donation buttons, etc. See Twitch for what successful monetization of this sort of audience looks like.
  - lmm 10y ago
    A lot of that commerce happens in violation of copyright, and sometimes in violation of other laws too; it can fly under the radar when it's person-to-person but would be harder for the company to monetize. Is Twitch profitable? Have they had to face a serious copyright infringement lawsuit from a game maker yet?

DeviantArt has always been a nice community. I find it surprising that the price is so low given that they add a lot of value.

by omn1 10y ago

DeviantArt has always been a nice community. I find it surprising that the price is so low given that they add a lot of value.

petercooper 10y ago

the deal will increase its revenue outlook by around $8 million So around a 4.5x revenue multiple, which doesn't seem bad for a business that isn't growing rapidly(?)

charlesdm 10y ago
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.
- petercooper 10y ago
  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.
  - charlesdm 10y ago
    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.
- elsewhen 10y ago
  many acquirers focus on revenue more than profits because once ingested, the cost-side of the business can change dramatically. according to quantcast, deviantart is doing over 40MM monthly uniques. i suspect it is that reach (and not profit or revenue) that wix is actually acquiring.

wmeredith 10y ago

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.

kijin 10y ago
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.
- avian 10y ago
  > hard to get away with ugly, intrusive ads Deviantart has click-through ads that overlay the content on mobile and a big bright banner for registered users if they are using an adblocker. It seems they are already getting away with ugly and intrusive.
- pjc50 10y ago
  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.
scrollaway 10y ago
Is it? dA is full of artists selling their art and users buying it. It's full of Patreons, donation buttons, etc. See Twitch for what successful monetization of this sort of audience looks like.
- lmm 10y ago
  A lot of that commerce happens in violation of copyright, and sometimes in violation of other laws too; it can fly under the radar when it's person-to-person but would be harder for the company to monetize. Is Twitch profitable? Have they had to face a serious copyright infringement lawsuit from a game maker yet?