Type of business | Private |
---|---|
Type of site | News and entertainment |
Available in | English |
Founded | March 14, 2012 [1] |
Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, United States |
Owner | Good Worldwide |
Founder(s) | Eli Pariser and Peter Koechley |
Editor | Eric Pfeiffer (Editor-in-chief) |
CEO | Max Schorr |
URL | upworthy |
Current status | Active |
Upworthy is a media brand that focuses on positive storytelling. [2]
It was started in March 2012 by Eli Pariser, the former executive director of MoveOn, and Peter Koechley, the former managing editor of The Onion . One of Facebook's co-founders, Chris Hughes, was an early investor. In 2017, the company was acquired by Good Worldwide. Between the two platforms, they reached 100MM people a month. [3] [4] [5] [6]
In October 2012 it raised $4 million from New Enterprise Associates and other angel investors, including BuzzFeed co-founder John Johnson, Facebook co-founder and New Republic owner Chris Hughes, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. [7] It has worked with Unilever, Skype, CoverGirl, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. [8] [9] [10]
Originally, Upworthy curators searched the internet for existing content to feature on the site. [11] Once selected as an option, curators brainstormed different headlines and shareable images for the content, and tested it with a small sample of Upworthy’s visitors before sharing it on the site. [11]
In June 2013, an article in Fast Company called Upworthy "the fastest growing media site of all time". [12] It had 8.7 million unique monthly visitors in the first six months. [13]
The site popularized a style of two-phrase headlines. [14] It has been criticized for its use of overly sensationalized, emotionally manipulative, "clickbait" style, headlines as well as having a liberal bias, and simplifying issues that are controversial by nature. [15] [16] [17] [18] Upworthy was accused of laying off one round of writers in 2015, and another in 2016, after an unionization effort by some of the staff. The union involved, the Writers Guild of America, East, has organized several online "viral" news publishers. [19]
In January 2017, Upworthy was acquired by GOOD Worldwide, a company that similarly focused on spreading progressive messages through their websites such as good.is. The newsrooms of the two organizations would merge as part of the acquisition. About 20 staffers were laid off as part of the merger. [20]
Upworthy was ranked as one of the Top 100 Social Brands of 2021 (#38), and one of the Top 50 Brands by Cross-Platform Video Actions (#34) with 180.6 million and 49.7 million interactions, respectively. [21]
In January 2023, National Geographic Books bought GOOD PEOPLE: Stories From the Best of Humanity from Upworthy, with a publication date set for September 3, 2024. [22] It was created by two senior Upworthy team members, Gabriel Reilich and Lucia Knell, and features 101 stories from Upworthy’s audience. [23] [22]
Salon is an American politically progressive and liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events.
Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product mainly on various social media platforms. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people, much in the same way that a virus spreads from one person to another. It can be delivered by word of mouth, or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet and mobile networks.
RhythmOne plc, a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company which owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel.
A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email. For a video to be shareable or spreadable, it must focus on the social logics and cultural practices that have enabled and popularized these new platforms.
GOOD Worldwide Inc. is a United States-based company with offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle that reports on businesses and non-profits. GOOD produces a website, a quarterly magazine, online videos, and events. Content covered includes environmental issues, education, urban planning, design, politics, culture, technology, and health. Good Worldwide Inc. is the consolidation of originally separate brands: Reason Pictures, GOOD magazine, and GOOD Digital, in partnership with Causes, a Facebook/MySpace app promoting donations of time and money to charities and non-profits; Goodrec and Govit, an application that connects US citizens with their elected representatives. GOOD Worldwide Inc. is made up of three organizations: GOOD/Media, GOOD/Community and GOOD/Corps.
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" to see how websites looked in the past. Its founders, Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, developed the Wayback Machine to provide "universal access to all knowledge" by preserving archived copies of defunct web pages.
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Kenneth Lerer, co-founder and chairman of The Huffington Post, started as a co-founder and investor in BuzzFeed and is now the executive chairman.
Imgur is an American online image sharing and image hosting service with a focus on social gossip that was founded by Alan Schaaf in 2009. The service has hosted viral images and memes, particularly those posted on Reddit.
A content farm or content mill is a company that employs freelance creators or uses automated tools to generate a large amount of web content which is specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximal retrieval by search engines, known as SEO. Their main goal is to generate advertising revenue through attracting page views, as first exposed in the context of social spam.
WorldStarHipHop is a content-aggregating video blog. Founded in 2005, the site averaged 1.2 million unique visitors a day in 2011. The site, operated by Worldstar, LLC, was founded by Lee "Q" O'Denat. Described by Vibe as a "remnant of the Geocities generation", the site regularly features shocking events caught on video, music videos and assorted content targeted to young audiences. O'Denat who referred to himself as a "Haitian ghetto nerd", described WorldStarHipHop as the "CNN of the ghetto".
Clickbait is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow ("click") that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise misleading. A "teaser" aims to exploit the "curiosity gap", providing just enough information to make readers of news websites curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content. Clickbait headlines often add an element of dishonesty, using enticements that do not accurately reflect the content being delivered. The "-bait" suffix makes an analogy with fishing, where a hook is disguised by an enticement (bait), presenting the impression to the fish that it is a desirable thing to swallow.
LiveJasmin is an adult website that provides live streaming and related services, typically featuring nudity and sexual activity ranging from striptease and erotic talk to masturbation with sex toys and full sexual intercourse.
Mic is an American internet and media company based in New York City that caters to millennials.
Dylan Matthews is an American journalist. He is currently a correspondent for Vox, an online media venture.
ClickHole is a satirical website that parodies clickbait websites such as BuzzFeed and Upworthy. It was launched on June 12, 2014 by The Onion, in conjunction with that publication's decision to stop its print edition and shift its focus exclusively to the internet. According to ClickHole's senior editor, Jermaine Affonso, the website is "The Onion's response to click-bait content" and serves as "a parody of online media". Critics noted that, on a deeper level, ClickHole illustrates the shallow nature of social media content and media sites' desperation to share such content.
SHE Media is an American digital media company. It operates the website properties BlogHer, SheKnows, STYLECASTER, and HelloFlo. It has been a brand of Penske Media Corporation since 2018.
Occupy Democrats is an American left-wing media outlet built around a Facebook page and corresponding website. Established in 2012, it publishes hyperpartisan content, clickbait, and false information. Posts originating from the Occupy Democrats Facebook page are among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.
A chumbox is a form of online advertising that uses a grid of thumbnails and captions to drive traffic to other sites and webpages. This form of advertising is often associated with low quality clickbait links and articles. The term derives from the fishing practice of "chumming", the use of fish meat as a lure for fish.
Peter Lennon Koechley is an American writer and internet entrepreneur. He was the managing editor of The Onion and co-founded Upworthy.
Rage-baiting or rage-farming is internet slang that refers to a manipulative tactic to elicit outrage with the goal of increasing internet traffic, online engagement, revenue and support. Rage baiting or farming can be used as a tool to increase engagement, attract subscribers, followers, and supporters, which can be financially lucrative. Rage baiting and rage farming manipulates users to respond in kind to offensive, inflammatory headlines, memes, tropes, or comments.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link)