The cloud-based web development platform Wix has acquired online art gallery DeviantArt for $36 million.
"DeviantArt is consistently one of the most visited websites worldwide and has grown organically for over a decade with virtually investment in marketing or advertising," said Wix in its statement.
As its first move, Wix said that it intends to improve DeviantArt's platform, especially its mobile app. Wix assured that DeviantArt's 40 million registered users will see positive changes.
To leverage the community, Wix president Nir Zohar said that the company is creating a paid subscription service for niche users, like for example photographers and musicians.
As part of this acquisition, DeviantArt's co-founder and CEO Angelo Sotira is joining Wix's management team, along with the rest of DeviantArt's employees.
While Wix is strengthening DeviantArt and allowing it to operate as a standaone site, Wix is also boosting its own business in a couple of ways.
First, Wix is now having the access to deviants and their arts (approximately 325 million individual pieces of original art). By opening up DeviantArt's repository of art and creative community to the Wix platform, Wix’s users can access deviants' design to use in their own site building.
Second, DeviantArt users are getting access to Wix's web design tools to build out more dynamic online presences. This is adding up to Wix's already varied suite of building tools.
"Over its 16-year history, DeviantArt has built an impressive online community that is incredibly loyal, highly engaged and regularly produces stunning art and design," said Avishai Abrahami, Wix's co-founder and CEO, in a statement. "The DeviantArt community is talented and robust and hungry for additional product expertise. We understand their passion, share their creative vision and are excited to offer the power of the Wix platform to their millions of artists."
Following the acquisition, Wix is increasing its revenue outlook for 2017 by $8 million to between $417 million and $419 million.
