Flipboard acquires Graze, the feed builder working to monetize the open social web
Flipboard acquires Graze, the feed builder working to monetize the open social web
Flipboard 收购 Graze，这家 Feed 构建商致力于实现开放社交网络的商业化
Flipboard, the news magazine software company that has more recently invested in the open social web — the umbrella term for social platforms that let users, not one company, control their own data and audience — is making another big bet on that ecosystem.
Flipboard 是一家新闻杂志软件公司，近期一直在投资“开放社交网络”（Open Social Web）——这是一个统称，指代那些让用户而非单一公司掌控自身数据和受众的社交平台。目前，该公司正对这一生态系统进行又一次重大押注。
The company on Wednesday announced it’s acquiring the Portland-based feed-building startup Graze, which has been working to monetize the open social web by allowing feed creators to support themselves via ads.
该公司周三宣布，将收购总部位于波特兰的 Feed 构建初创公司 Graze。Graze 一直致力于通过允许 Feed 创建者利用广告实现自给自足，从而推动开放社交网络的商业化。
Graze today offers tools to build, customize, publish, and manage Bluesky feeds, which are curated post streams that users can set as their home feed, pin for quick access, or pull into other apps built on Bluesky’s AT Protocol (an open technical standard that lets different apps share the same social network). Since launching 21 months ago, Graze has sent over 41 billion posts to some 12 million people, the company says.
Graze 目前提供构建、自定义、发布和管理 Bluesky Feed 的工具。这些 Feed 是经过策划的帖子流，用户可以将其设置为首页 Feed、固定以便快速访问，或将其引入基于 Bluesky AT Protocol（一种允许不同应用共享同一社交网络的开放技术标准）构建的其他应用中。据该公司称，自 21 个月前推出以来，Graze 已向约 1200 万用户推送了超过 410 亿条帖子。
The idea is that curators and communities can build their own feeds to turn their expertise into income. Most importantly, the ads are not based on the data-tracking model that relies on following individual users across the web and that open social web supporters call the “surveillance ecosystem.” Instead, they’re contextual. That is, if a brand wants to target ads to game developers, it can buy a placement in a feed run by members of that community. What’s more, the feed’s curator can pick and choose which ads they want to run. Meanwhile, the ad revenue is split 70/30 with Graze, with the majority of the revenue going to the feed’s creator.
其核心理念是让策展人和社区能够建立自己的 Feed，将专业知识转化为收入。最重要的是，这些广告并非基于那种依赖跨网络追踪个人用户的“数据追踪模型”（开放社交网络支持者将其称为“监控生态系统”），而是基于上下文的。也就是说，如果品牌方想要向游戏开发者投放广告，它可以购买由该社区成员运营的 Feed 中的广告位。此外，Feed 的策展人还可以自主选择投放哪些广告。同时，广告收入与 Graze 按 70/30 分成，其中大部分收入归 Feed 创建者所有。
At present, Graze has north of 7,000 feeds on its platform, and around 60% of its traffic is monetized. In an interview with TechCrunch, Flipboard CEO Mike McCue praised the adtech involved, saying that “it doesn’t have to surveil anybody, and it doesn’t have to violate people’s privacy … so that’s a really fantastic vision. And the key thing is that all the economics aren’t just going to one player.” He added, “The ad revenue is being shared with the feed builder.”
目前，Graze 平台上拥有超过 7,000 个 Feed，约 60% 的流量已实现商业化。在接受 TechCrunch 采访时，Flipboard 首席执行官 Mike McCue 对其涉及的广告技术大加赞赏，称：“它不需要监控任何人，也不需要侵犯人们的隐私……这是一个非常棒的愿景。关键在于，所有的经济收益并非只流向单一参与者。”他补充道：“广告收入正在与 Feed 构建者共享。”
Flipboard had been using Graze’s feed-building technology in its new app, Surf, which led to the two companies working more closely together. It turned out that the outfits shared a vision for how the open social ecosystem could grow, but they were also duplicating each other’s work.
Flipboard 此前已在其新应用 Surf 中使用了 Graze 的 Feed 构建技术，这促使两家公司展开了更紧密的合作。事实证明，双方对开放社交生态系统的发展愿景高度一致，但也存在重复开发工作的情况。
Graze co-founder and CEO Devin Gaffney realized things could move faster with a partner that already had the infrastructure he needed — in this case, Flipboard’s existing relationships with advertisers. Post-acquisition, Flipboard will continue to use Graze’s technology and enable its users to build feeds themselves, which will expand beyond the Bluesky app to everything running on the AT Protocol, Flipboard’s own app included.
Graze 联合创始人兼首席执行官 Devin Gaffney 意识到，如果与拥有所需基础设施的合作伙伴携手，业务推进速度会更快——就目前而言，即 Flipboard 与广告商现有的合作关系。收购完成后，Flipboard 将继续使用 Graze 的技术，并支持用户自行构建 Feed。这一功能将从 Bluesky 应用扩展到所有运行在 AT Protocol 上的应用，包括 Flipboard 自己的应用。
McCue noted that in many cases, the feed builders are people who are building their own communities on the open web, but their members aren’t necessarily thinking of it in the same way. “They don’t think of it as, like, ‘I’m joining Bluesky’ or ‘I’m joining the social web, the open social web.’ They just think, ‘I’m joining The Tea because I care about women’s sports,’” he said, referencing a feed from one of the communities on Surf that’s called Bet on Her.
McCue 指出，在许多情况下，Feed 构建者是在开放网络上建立自己社区的人，但他们的成员未必会以同样的方式思考。“他们不会觉得‘我加入了 Bluesky’或‘我加入了社交网络、开放社交网络’。他们只会觉得‘我加入了 The Tea，因为我关心女子体育’，”他引用了 Surf 上一个名为“Bet on Her”的社区 Feed 举例说道。
Flipboard isn’t disclosing the acquisition’s terms, but this was a small deal, as Graze had only raised $1 million at the beginning of 2025 and has just two team members.
Flipboard 未披露此次收购的条款，但这属于一笔小型交易，因为 Graze 在 2025 年初仅筹集了 100 万美元，且团队成员仅有两人。