Yahoo has acquired Artifact, the AI-based news platform founded by the co-founders of Instagram. And with that Yahoo decided to include it with their other services.
Yahoo is struggling to grow revenue while tech giants Alphabet (Google) and the Meta platform are snapping up most advertisers. The acquisition of Artifact, despite having its own news platform at the same time, surprised many.
Earlier in a blog post last January, Artifact hinted at the closure of their app. The company says the current market is not big enough for continued investment.
Yahoo owns news brands such as tech media TechCrunch, Engadget and Yahoo Finance. The company says Artifact’s AI-powered recommendation engine and other features will help Yahoo News operations and deliver personalized content to viewers.
Early last year, Instagram co-founders Systrom and Mike Kreiger launched Artifact. They remained on Facebook until 2018 when Facebook (now Meta Company) acquired Instagram in 2012.