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Diply to invest more in 'value-added' content as traffic surges

Roger Yu
USA TODAY
Diply's co-founders, from left, Dean Elkholy, COO; Gary Manning, CTO; Taylor Ablitt, CEO

While seeking a loan from his father to launch a website, Taylor Ablitt told him he hoped the start-up would become one of Canada’s 1,500 most popular sites.

Two years later, Diply.com is the 68th most popular site in the world, according to Web analytics firm Alexa as of Nov. 24. The news/entertainment site — it looks a lot like a cousin of BuzzFeed— gets more traffic than Craigslist, CNN, ESPN.GO.com and NYTimes.com. In the past 30 days, it had about 108 million users and 742 million page views, according to Google Analytics.

“We’ve been able to pay him back," says Ablitt, co-founder and CEO of Diply and its parent company, GoViral. "It’s probably the best investment (my father) made.”

Not surprisingly, the traffic was built largely on the usual melange of stories that are meant to be viral, shareable and not so taxing on brain cells — listicles, clickbait, household tips and user-generated content that allows Diply to go light on editorial staffing. Some typical headlines include “12 Hotline Bling Nails Because YOLO,” “Doctors Hid This Baby So Nobody Could See THIS Face” and “A Boy Found A Blind Deer In His Neighborhood. What He Does For It Has My Heart Bursting!”

Its enviable traffic numbers — and profit — produced in such a short period  illustrate the direction of ad dollars and the topsy-turvy nature of the online media business that can quickly reward Johnny-come-latelies without an editorial tradition or a large content team.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Ablitt, whose company is based in London, Ontario, acknowledged the fleeting nature of much of the site’s content. Like the site Diply is often compared to, BuzzFeed, it plans on a next phase that entails hiring more editorial staffers and generating more “value-added” content, he said. His comments have been edited for clarity and length.

Rieder: BuzzFeed a burgeoning journalistic force

Q: How did you get started?

A: We have three founding partners. We originally started in early 2013. My business partner (Dean Elkholy) was in school. I was out as an accountant. We were always brainstorming about the next big thing. (Elkholy) approached me about this opportunity about going online and leveraging social media to get eyeballs on content. He had spent a ton of time on social media. We failed pretty miserably for the first five or six months. It wasn't until we met our other partner, Gary Manning, that we knew how to implement a platform that can support our ideas.

Q: When did you know that you had a sustainable business? 

A: In November 2013, we launched Diply. We're not a typical start-up. We got no outside money, and to this date, we still haven’t received any outside funding. It’s something I’m very proud of. We were cash flow positive within two months. We were able to grow through the cash flow. Within a month of launch, we were in the top 10,000 websites in the world. So we kind of knew we had something. By the end of 2014, we had a little over 2 billion page views. Now we’re 110 employees in London, Ontario, and about 30 others who help us internationally on contract. We’re second to BuzzFeed in online entertainment now.

Q: What were the competitive advantages did you think you could bring as you started?And how were you able to drive your traffic so quickly?

A: Publications aren't able to bring enough content for people to consume on a daily basis. People are spending so much time on social media. We thought we can take advantage of this. A lot of traditional platforms hadn't leveraged social media with their fans. That was kind of our opening. If you are able to pick up content and be there first, your distribution opportunities are greater. The average Facebook user has 300 friends. If you can make that content memorable or shareable, that’s where you get that viral effect.

Q: Can you provide a breakdown of your revenue sources?

A: Ninety-five percent is display (ads). Of that, 30% is programmatic (ads sold automatically through digital exchanges and trading desks).

Q: You’ve operated with a relatively low profile. Was that by design?

A: Part of it is that we didn't want a target on our back. We were onto something a lot of people weren’t. A lot of big media companies really don't understand how to engage users from the social media perspective. Over 80% of our traffic comes from social media.

When you’re so bootstrap, you kind of fear everything. You're competing with BuzzFeed that has a $1.5 billion valuation. It's a bit of a crazy world in tech. Nine months ago, I didn't have a COO or CFO. Now, we have almost fully rounded out the executive team. We’re now comfortable where we are.

Q: How is your content generated, and what’s the mix?

A: We’ve got a creative team of over 50 people. Our writing team is about 25. They’re creating, curating 60-plus articles a day. We also have a freelance group. But the majority of content comes from the internal team. There are (other community pages) on Diply  (like Chicken Soup for the Soul or Aunty Acid)  that are trying to get exposure on our platform. Our content team creates content for these influencers. They’re also creating content on their own.

Q: You derive a lot of traffic from Facebook. Can you elaborate on your relationship with the social media channel?

A: Facebook (is) 70%-plus of our social traffic. Facebook's relationship with us is very close. They are the No. 1 highway to social websites in the world now. And that’s why we’re looking at the new products they’re launching and trying to integrate with them.

Q: BuzzFeed says it’s investing more in serious journalism. Do you plan to expand your editorial offerings similarly?

A: Twelve months from now, we believe things internally will be different. We’re potentially launching more websites. We’re looking at the more traditional market. We’re investing heavily in our video production team and also moving into social news. We’re never going to compete with CNN. But you see great companies providing snippets of content or looking into issues that are happening in the world today and then looking into it from a different angle. As we build our audience and brand, our audience is going to want to consume that type of content. We’re not going to be an investigative journalism platform, like Vice, but what they’re doing on social is where we’re moving to.

For any viral publisher, the question is how do you transition and become that household brand. That’s definitely by providing value outside of listicles and viral content. We don’t ever want to come across as too serious, but we do want to provide more value-added content.

And branded content is the new form of advertising. It’s important to get into the conversations on that.

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