Jonah Peretti ’s Annual Letter to Shareholders
BuzzFeed has built and fostered the outgrowth of some of the most iconic brands on the internet — BuzzFeed , HuffPost , Tasty , First We Feast and Hot Ones — by embracing new engineering , pioneering new format and innovating to bring our depicted object to life in new ways .
In this letter , I ’d like to share my vision for our flagship BuzzFeed brand . In the futurity , I may talk more about our strategy for some of our other brands , but today my focus is on BuzzFeed , or as we like to call it internally , “ Big Red . ”
With the explosion of GenAI , we ’re at the precipice of another technical revolution , and we have an chance once again to pioneer the future of media .
Over the preceding 15 years , we ’ve been part of this medium emerging , mature and becoming omnipresent . Our unique approach to media has cheer outlets as diverse as TheNew YorkTimes and Mr. Beast . Over this period of time , BuzzFeed emerged as a leader in data - driven storytelling and a specify personnel inpop cultureand entertainment . Today , BuzzFeed go along to be the biggest player in digital media , with immensely more time spent than wide known digital and bequest brands like Vox , Bustle , People , Condé Nast and Hearst .
As everyone adopted the convention of societal medium that our team pioneer , it became hard to remain firm out . We face more contender from the many companies and creators who mirrored many of the approach to mental object that we develop . Many people who develop up with BuzzFeed became Divine , making content in a similar fashion for the large internet program , and we find ourselves competing with a generation who learned to make media from watching our videos and share our inclination and quiz . Though these creators do exalt study , they are restrict by being out there on their own , without the power to do R&D at scale and without a community of interests of workfellow to brook them and promote their life history forward .
This is why I ’m convinced the platforms are making a strategic error by not supporting medium companies like ours . Creators are a flashy or innocent reservoir of content for the weapons platform , but media companies bring so much more , include a cognitive content development infrastructure that is long - terminus orient , and help the platform recrudesce out of the “ local maximums ” that limit the development of their services . They ’re lose out on the opportunity to build sustainable , positive and socially - beneficial media ecosystems . Collaborations with publishers and medium ship’s company would also create a competitive fosse for platforms , because it ’s voiceless to compete with any individual entity that aggregate the best of everything : premium mental object , creators and personal update . Despite my best efforts , I have n’t been able to convince the platforms to school a medium ecosystem where lineament publishers can flourish — when the allure of commoditized content , and zero and low - monetary value creator labor is impossible for political platform to resist .
This is a social issue far beyond the scope of what BuzzFeed alone can deposit . Instead , we will look for chance in the silver linings and make our own sustainable models . The truth is , multitude are n’t happy with infinite scrolling through algorithmically recommend short - manikin content . The experience is habit-forming and engagement numbers are strong , but that does n’t mean people are quenched . While it can often be entertaining , it will hoi polloi feeling empty and wanting more : more astuteness , more community , and more control . This is our competitive opening , to proffer the “ more ” so many crave .
The advancements in AI have spread out up an opportunity to make a new mass medium that press digital media forward , powered by a find technology that nominate entirely young experience potential for the first clip . I have n’t been this excited since our other days develop “ social subject matter ” as a raw culture medium . I see a marvelous opportunity in front of us tobuild the defining media company for the AI era .
HARNESSING OUR STRENGTHS AS THE PLATFORM LANDSCAPE SHIFTS
BuzzFeed - a trade name that was work up on the rise of societal media and Facebook - has undergo an vivid period of version over the preceding few years as hearing behaviour has shifted . In 2020 , Facebook - referred traffic to BuzzFeed was six times high than direct dealings to our site . Today , Facebook is no longer a corporeal source of referral dealings . From 2020 to 2023 Facebook traffic has worsen 74 % . Over that same period , our unmediated dealings has grow by 12 % . Today the majority of dealings referrals are direct , from our app or internally generated through cross promotion and recirculation . As the platforms become wall gardens , people are still finding their way to us . We’ve completed the passage from being a Facebook ecosystem company to being a web company that controls our own destiny .
More recently , we ’ve also seen a positive shift key in the dynamics of our core audience to favour deeper date on our own sites and apps , with a desire for new physique of originative content . Across the BuzzFeed site and app , time spent per pageview grew one-quarter - over - quarter in Q3 and again in Q4 2023 . And time pass per pageview with our AI - powered content has importantly outperformed static subject matter . Our audience love that we ’ve create a special place on the internet that feels like home , where they belong to , can have merriment , and we are just getting begin applying AI to our site and app to make the experience even better . reset our strategic focusing to focus on our owned and operated situation and apps allows us to directly gain from the program of engineering science to our business , especially GenAI .
We are just at the head start of this oeuvre and are very worked up about how this technology can further optimise our core business lines . Our first experimentation with a personalized , AI - powered content module in our app boosted pageviews by 24 % , thereby increase both dealings and taxation because we were able to oppose users with the capacity ( and product ) we know they care . This is just one little whole step in forging a system of personalization that will make our situation and apps more rewarding , engaging and merriment for substance abuser .
PIONEERING THE NEXT REVOLUTION IN DIGITAL MEDIA
When technology enables a new mass medium , people ordinarily make the mistake of drum the sometime medium in the new box . When TV first arrived , media companies used it to broadcast radio programs or pre - recorded theatrical plays . Watching a play on TV is n’t a great room to use the metier , and eventually video developed its own conventions of close ups , quick baseball swing , and scene changes .
The same error is being made with AI right now . It is being used by some mistaken publishing house to engender inactive articles — using a young medium to mimic a bequest medium . This mistake is made again and again throughout history , and the samara to success is toexplore relentlesslyuntil you detect things that are only possible in the new metier and then list into them to create magic .
We are starting with a deep understanding of how a new medium is born on the internet . We did this before when we helped open up “ societal message ” so we have a proven playbook . Our company make for together creative editorial team who are tech - literate with technology team that are creative - a unequaled combination to invent the future tense of AI substance . These types of collaborative , bad-tempered - disciplinary teams are lacking at the adult technical school companies and the traditional media company . And we have a highly booked consultation who loves our brand name and expects us to storm and enthrall them with new forms of content .
We are off to a smashing start with these exploration . Not many have intercourse this , but we publish some of our first AI experiment as early as2018 , including theObama Deep Fake PSA videothat is still widely referenced by think leaders , researchers and academics across the AI place today . We ’ve been experimenting with this emerging technology ever since , with a focus on speedy testing , con and repeat to grasp new intellect and wider applications of AI for our content . To date , we ’ve build a clump of experiences that are very difficult or impossible without AI .
We startle with “ infinity ” quizzes likeWhat Town Should You know in free-base on Your Lifestyleand AI - figure creations like50 States of Barbie Dreamhouse . We then expanded to chatbot elan games and characters like our Nepo Baby simulation gameNepogotchi , which saw doubly as much time spent per pageview when compared to our static content print in 2023 . We also launch utility program - focused AI products , likeShoppy , an AI assistant that help our audience encounter the perfect holiday gift for everyone on their list . We also created a new “ content railway locomotive ” format : a customEmoji Generator , which skyrocket to join the top 10 most - engaged BuzzFeed place of all sentence .
The trial run - and - study phase has given means to a deeper understanding of the landscape painting , the druthers of our consultation and the potential for this medium . It ’s clear that users are n’t as excite by the static , stereotypic uses of AI , but are hungry for the more creative and antiphonal potential that the technology enables . Even though we are just getting started on this journeying , we see chance for this technology to enable novel horizontal surface of personalization that not only understand user preference but reply to real - time changes in mood or interests .
We are at the scratch line of make an totally new medium that is so responsive and dynamic that our content and platform will feel almost alive . And while hyper - personalized algorithmic program of the major platforms can be isolating , we see this mass medium as a elbow room to build and raise communities of people , through content and experiences that build on social relationship and share interests , in much the same way that social content was once made to share . We mean there are ways to unlock unexampled forms of storytelling and imagination , make colloquial media , and endlessly remix and acquire the originative output of our teams and our audience . In the close future , we will bring this work together into a reimagined BuzzFeed web and app experience as we continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with AI and drive the industry forward . I ca n’t wait to show our consultation what we are building next .
BUILDING THE DEFINING MEDIA COMPANY FOR THE AI ERA
As you will see in the follow financial program line presented within our Annual Report , 2023 was a intriguing yr for our business enterprise and digital publishing more broadly . As competitor for audience meter between the platform compound and advertisers contended with uncertainty in the marketplace , we were bear upon . On a stay procedure basis , leave off Complex , our 2023 taxation go down 26 % to $ 253 million , which was accompanied by an Adjusted EBITDA loss of $ 5 million , as compared to approximately breakeven in 2022 .
To be clear , we are not satisfied with this performance . And , in the beginning this year , we made key strategic and organisational changes to address this . Specifically , we :
Before I roll up , I want to deal a final thought . We had a choice when we readjust BuzzFeed ’s strategical direction originally this class . We could have become more of a media company , more of a content company or more of an government agency to make content for client . We choose to move in the opposite management to become more of a tech troupe . The intellect is because the “ tech path of thought ” - the implicit ideas that underlie the industry - are what will end up define our shared future tense . company grow and flourish when they prize scalability , technological leveraging , zero marginal cost , political machine learning and confident feedback loop . There is a reason TikTok beat Quibi . Or Netflix outcompeted all the big media companies . EvenDisneywas originally led by a engineer who invent a new mass medium , creating the first animated feature film with Snow White .
technical school billionaires may say obtuse things sometimes , but the pith * ideas * behind the tech industry , and the pursuit of scalability and technological leverage , provide the unspoilt path to : develop a company , have a big encroachment and , in our case , spread truth , joy , and creativeness on the net .
We are an ambitious ship’s company , and we are n’t satisfied with simply spend a penny good depicted object for the platforms . We ’ve always been as obsess with the medium as we are with the substance . We are determined to build the hereafter of media and we are adjust our scheme accordingly .
As we enter on the next stage of our journey , I want to receive all the new shareowner who are unite us and supporting our next level of emergence . We are committed to delivering for you and create economic value the best way we know how - by innovating to drive the digital culture medium industry forward .
I ca n’t expect for what ’s next . you could read BuzzFeed , Inc ’s full 2023 Annual Reporthere .
