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BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed is an independent American news and entertainment digital media company headquartered in New York City with other offices in the United States and around the world. With 92 million unique U.S. visitors across multiple platforms in December 2019 and a global audience of over 520 million, BuzzFeed’s success lies in their ability to create entertaining and viral content geared toward millennials.

Founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III, BuzzFeed produces both original and community-driven viral content using a multiplatform approach, which differs from traditional media channels in the creation and distribution of content. BuzzFeed content is created daily and distributed across websites and social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram. BuzzFeed remains known for its ability to deliver original content that generates “buzz” and encourages users to share content with others in their social circle.

BuzzFeed utilizes a traditional organizational structure where everything from content creation to advertising is kept in-house. BuzzFeed’s popularity originated from providing entertainment journalism (e.g., viral videos, quizzes, and pop culture articles) for a young and digitally savvy target audience before expanding to offer award-winning investigative journalism. BuzzFeed has expanded to include multiple brands such as Tasty (food-focused social networking), Nifty (money-saving hacks and do-it-yourself projects), Goodful (health and food), As/Is (lifestyle), and Bring Me! (travel). BuzzFeed’s network includes BuzzFeed Originals, BuzzFeed Media Brands, BuzzFeed Studios, BuzzFeed Community, BuzzFeed News, and BuzzFeed Commerce. In 2021, BuzzFeed acquired HuffPost in a stock deal with Verizon Media. BuzzFeed has relied heavily on native advertising as a source of revenue. In 2015, BuzzFeed’s estimated net worth was $1.5 billion, and as of 2019, BuzzFeed had over 1,100 employees. This entry discusses BuzzFeed’s origins and business model, its various brands and networks, and some of the notable feature stories, videos, and news articles it has published.

Origins

During a time when the digital media landscape was drastically changing, BuzzFeed provided users with copious amounts of viral and entertaining original content. BuzzFeed also strategically sought to understand the emotions and demands of its target audience in order to ensure that original content was shareable and viral, metrics of a successful post. BuzzFeed quickly became known for listicles, or articles presenting items as lists, including “15 Links to Animal Pornography” and “20 Celebrity Nipple Slips.” Another staple of BuzzFeed content is online quizzes such as “Half the Population Can’t Pass this High School Simulation Without Cheating—Can You?” To encourage audience members to share posts, BuzzFeed often focuses on topics that are part of their identity or lives such as their generation (e.g., “32 Extremely Specific Things Every Single Millennial Hasn’t Thought About In YEARS”), favorite TV shows (e.g., “25 ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Facts You Probably Didn’t Know, But 100% Should”), and gender (e.g., “19 Reasons Why Women are So Much Stronger Than Men Could Ever Dare To Be”). BuzzFeed tracks which content pieces are going viral and which are being shared among its target audiences.

In order to provide more viral content, BuzzFeed strives to understand its target audience. This is accomplished by providing users an opportunity to identify their emotional reactions when consuming BuzzFeed content by clicking on reaction badges (e.g., LOL, OMG, CUTE). This not only allows target audiences to identify their emotional reactions to content but also provides target audiences an opportunity to seek out emotionally specific content. In addition, quizzes such as “Deep Truth Personality Test: Your Emotional Responses to 8 Images will Reveal a Deep Truth About You” and “Your Reaction to these Weird Food Photos Will Reveal Your Emotional Age” allow BuzzFeed to strategically tap into the emotional reactions of consumers. By doing so, BuzzFeed is able to gauge what target audiences want to see while also building an emotional connection.

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