BuzzFeed Slashes Revenue Forecast: Is This the Beginning of the End of the Millennial Media Bubble?
BuzzFeed missed its revenue target by 32 percent in 2015, and has slashed its revenue projections for 2016 from $500 million to $250 million, the Financial Times reports. Initially known for its listicles and relatable GIFs, the youth-oriented media start-up has made a name for itself by dramatically scaling its audience (BuzzFeed had 181 million global unique visitors in the past month), investing in in-depth reporting, and expanding into video production. Just last week, BuzzFeed captivated 800,000 people simultaneously on a Friday afternoon as two of its employees, dressed in goggles and protective gear, wrapped a watermelon with rubber bands until it exploded, in a live-streamed Facebook video.
But sources say that BuzzFeed’s business model—which includes BuzzFeed making customized content campaigns for brands—is hard to do at scale. “It takes too long to do each campaign, and you can only do so many,” one source told the Times. In 2015, Buzzfeed had projected $250 million in revenues overall, but made less than $170 million. (BuzzFeed disputed the numbers and told the Times: “We are very pleased with where BuzzFeed is today and where it will be tomorrow. We are very comfortable with where the digital content world is going and think we are well-positioned.”) More promising is television, where advertisers pay much more than they do for online content. Comcast’s NBCUniversal invested $200 million in BuzzFeed last summer at a $1.5 billion valuation, and at the time the two groups said they’d consider strategic partnerships.
BuzzFeed missed its revenue target by 32 percent in 2015, and has slashed its revenue projections for 2016 from $500 million to $250 million, the Financial Times reports. Initially known for its listicles and relatable GIFs, the youth-oriented media start-up has made a name for itself by dramatically scaling its audience (BuzzFeed had 181 million global unique visitors in the past month), investing in in-depth reporting, and expanding into video production. Just last week, BuzzFeed captivated 800,000 people simultaneously on a Friday afternoon as two of its employees, dressed in goggles and protective gear, wrapped a watermelon with rubber bands until it exploded, in a live-streamed Facebook video.
But sources say that BuzzFeed’s business model—which includes BuzzFeed making customized content campaigns for brands—is hard to do at scale. “It takes too long to do each campaign, and you can only do so many,” one source told the Times. In 2015, Buzzfeed had projected $250 million in revenues overall, but made less than $170 million. (BuzzFeed disputed the numbers and told the Times: “We are very pleased with where BuzzFeed is today and where it will be tomorrow. We are very comfortable with where the digital content world is going and think we are well-positioned.”) More promising is television, where advertisers pay much more than they do for online content. Comcast’s NBCUniversal invested $200 million in BuzzFeed last summer at a $1.5 billion valuation, and at the time the two groups said they’d consider strategic partnerships.
