Upworthy
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
|
Type of site
|
News and entertainment |
| Available in | English |
| Founded | March 14, 2012 |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Founder(s) | Eli Pariser and Peter Koechley |
| CEO | Eli Pariser |
| Key people | Amy O'Leary, Sara Critchfield |
| Slogan(s) | Because we're all part of the same story. |
| Website | www |
| Alexa rank |
 3,331 (Global, April 2016) |
| Advertising | Native |
| Current status | Active |
Upworthy is a website for viral content 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.
Upworthy's stated mission is "to change what the world pays attention to." It uses virality to promote stories with a progressive bent on political and social issues.
In June 2013, an article in Fast Company called Upworthy "the fastest growing media site of all time".
In August 2013 Upworthy became the first "non-traditional" site to feature in NewsWhip's Top Ten Publisher Rankings, in fifth place. By November 2013 they were the third most social publisher on Facebook, despite their low article count.
Upworthy popularized a distinctive style of two-phrase headlines, which has spread to many other websites. Examples of such Upworthy style headlines are:
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.
Since 2015, under the site's new Editorial Director, Amy O'Leary (who joined Upworthy from The New York Times in February, 2015) Upworthy focuses more on producing original content, rather than aggregating third-party content. This resulted in six of its staff being laid off as well as new staff being hired.
Upworthy has been through two rounds of funding. 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. In September 2013 it raised $8 million from investors Catamount Ventures, Spark Capital, Knight Foundation and Klee Irwin.
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