Yahoo said on Tuesday it had acquired Artifact, an AI-driven news platform from the Instagram co-founder, and would embed the technology into the U.S. web service provider's news and other sites.
The deal marks a continuing uphill battle for media startups struggling to grow revenue at a time when big tech companies Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. capture the majority of advertising revenue.
Artifact announced in a blog post in January that it would phase out the app, saying that “the market opportunity is not large enough to justify continued investment in this capacity.”
Yahoo, which also owns news brands such as TechCrunch, Engadget and Yahoo Finance, said Artifact's AI-powered recommendation engine and other capabilities will help it grow its news business and deliver personalized content to viewers.
The online publisher also owns a minority stake in content recommendation platform Taboola.
Yahoo, which declined to disclose financial details, was acquired by private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2021 for $5 billion (about Rs 4,173 crore).
Artifact was founded in early 2023 by Systrom and Mike Krieger, both of whom previously worked at Meta, then known as Facebook, after the company acquired Instagram in 2012.
The pair left Facebook's ownership in late 2018, with some media outlets later reporting that this was due to a deterioration in their relationship with meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and differing visions for Instagram.
In a statement, Yahoo said Systrom and Krieger would serve as advisers to the company during the transition period.
© Thomson Reuters 2024