Yahoo purchases AI news platform Artefact from Instagram co-founders

Yahoo purchases AI news platform Artefact from Instagram co-founders is profiled by BTW Media because public-source evidence links it to internet infrastructure, governance, operational dependencies, or market visibility.

• Artefact says it is ending operations of its app because the market opportunity is not sufficient to warrant continued investment in this way.
• Artefact, launched in early 2023 by Systrom and Mike Krieger, previously at Meta and Facebook, after Instagram’s acquisition in 2012, is a social media platform.

Yahoo said Tuesday it acquired Artefact, the artificial intelligence news platform from the co-founders of Instagram, and plans to integrate its technology into Yahoo’s news and other sites, underscoring the challenges media startups face in growing revenues amid the dominance of big tech giants.

Benefits for Yahoo

The agreement indicates more hardship ahead for media start-ups trying to increase income at a time when the majority of advertising revenues are generated by big tech behemoths Meta Platforms and Alphabet.

The app’s activities will be discontinued, according to a blog post from Artefact from January, stating that “the market opportunity isn’t big enough to warrant continued investment in this way.”

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Yahoo, a leading online publisher, is leveraging Artefact’s artificial intelligence recommendation engine and other features to expand its news business and provide personalised content to its audience, along with owning a minority stake in Taboola.

Yahoo, which declied to disclose financial details, was acquired by private equity firm Apollo Global Management in 2021 for $5 billion.

Media start-up

Artifact was founded in early 2023 by Systrom and Mike Krieger, who had earlier worked at Meta’s then-named Facebook after Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012. The duo had left the Facebook bosses at the end of 2018, which was later reported by media outlets as a result of their strained relationship with Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg and the duo’s divergent visions for Instagram. Yahoo also said Systrom and Krieger will work with Yahoo in an advisory capacity during the transition.