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How did http://www.deviantart.com/ become a popular community and what makes artists publish their art on this website and not others?
Hello! Thanks for your question about deviantART. The short version is that deviantART was one of the first social media platforms on the internet, and the first one for artists. Artists continue to share on deviantART due to their unique community, and the website's popularity. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
I personally loved researching this as I have been a member of deviantART since I was a teen.
METHODOLOGY
In order to research your question, I chose to read studies, articles, and statistical information regarding the popularity and history of deviantART. I also searched for interviews with the founding CEOs in order to uncover more information on how deviantART was created and other unique features.
FINDINGS
In order to fully answer this question, I will separate my findings into History, Statistics, and Features.
HISTORY
DeviantART is one of the earliest social media platforms currently on the internet. It predates MySpace by three years and Facebook by four. The CEO is Angelo Sotira, who, with Matt Stephens and Scott Jarkoff created the website as a social media platform for artists.
Sotira put $15,000 down on the first iteration of deviantART and launched in 2000. In 2007, deviantART accepted a $3.5 million investment from video-viewing software developer DivX. Along with advertisement revenue and membership revenue the site has steadily continued to grow.
In addition, deviantART has launched a fully functional mobile app in order to extend the experience outside of its website. The website is currently on its 8th iteration with the tagline "Bleed and Breed Art."
Much of their membership has grown through reputation from their successful history, and also word-of-mouth from other artists.
STATISTICS
DeviantART can boast as being the world's largest online art community with over 31 million registered users and over 285 million pieces of art. Today, the website attracts over 65 million visitors per month.
According to Alexa, deviantART ranks 161 on the global traffic rank, and 79 in the United States. Over 241,297 sites link to deviantART online. Users spend an average of 10 minutes on the website and view an average of 10 pages.
About 5 percent are premium members, paying $29.95 a year (or $4.95 a month) for ad-free browsing, poll-making capabilities, more customization tools and widgets, access to the archives and more deviations views per page.
NOTABLE FEATURES
DeviantART has a large community of over 31 million registered users. Users may follow and comment on the pages of other users. Some deviantART artists also offer tutorials, request art, and a merchandise store in order for followers to purchase their art.
DeviantART has also created a mobile app for Apple and Android phones, which is more than just a mobile version of their site, but rather an extension of their community.
DeviantART also has unique community features such as premium membership, a point system, and the giving of "llamas" as praise. This also promotes a revenue system as money can buy points and llama accessories.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, artists choose deviantART because it is the largest social media platform for artists available today. In addition, artists can be a part of a rich community and a website that is ever growing. To rival the popularity of deviantART as a start-up would be almost impossible because it's been around so long and has such an engrained community, but attracting popular talent from deviantART and other websites and offering a community aspect might help bring users to a new website.
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