BuzzFeed
We have built a dedicated team of 15 professionals who have been working with BuzzFeed Media Group for over 12 years. Our team is fully integrated into their processes, collaborating seamlessly to deliver high-quality results. This long-standing partnership reflects our ability to adapt to client's evolving needs and consistently contribute to their success.
About client
BuzzFeed is a prominent American digital media company recognized for its diverse content, ranging from news to entertainment, viral trends, and social media-friendly material. As the world's leading independent digital media platform, BuzzFeed creates a wide array of content, including serious journalism, entertaining listicles, quizzes, and engaging videos that are designed for easy sharing. Some of its most successful projects include BuzzFeed Quizzes, Tasty, News, and Videos, each catering to different interests and demographics. BuzzFeed's mission is to inspire, entertain, and inform through inclusive, empathetic, and innovative storytelling, fostering connections among its global audience and sparking conversations that resonate deeply.
About project
The BuzzFeed Portal project involved expanding BuzzFeed's engineering capabilities by building a dedicated, remote development team with expertise in web and mobile technologies. FlexMade became a long-term partner, providing engineering support that contributed to the development and maintenance of BuzzFeed's platform for breaking news, video content, and shareable online media.
Objectives & Challenges
BuzzFeed, a prosperous and rapidly expanding media company, sought efficient means to enhance current online products and develop new ones. Being aware of FlexMade's skilled talent pool in web and mobile development, they opted to explore the prospect of partnering with them. BuzzFeed was looking for a development team that shared its values and mission. In 2012, it was essential to feel that your remote development was not only skillful but also reliable, accessible, and predictable.
Approach & Methodology
FlexMade's approach focused on assembling a remote team that could operate effectively alongside BuzzFeed's internal engineering department. We began with 2 mobile developers, 4 QA engineers, and 3 frontenders, and the team eventually grew to 15 members. We prioritized engineers with excellent communication skills and requested that our Europe-based team members work shifted hours for specific key roles to guarantee significant overlap with the New York timezone. Our emphasis was on convenient collaboration and providing high-quality services.
BuzzFeed Portal
The BuzzFeed web portal is a vibrant, user-friendly platform designed to deliver diverse content through multimedia formats like articles, videos, quizzes, and lists. Its homepage is visually engaging, organized with trending stories, popular quizzes, and segmented news categories for easy navigation. The portal incorporates a responsive design, making it accessible across devices, and optimizes social sharing to encourage engagement. BuzzFeed's portal is known for its interactive features, such as reaction buttons and customizable feeds, which personalize user experience. It also uses real-time data analytics to dynamically adjust content placement based on trending topics and audience interests.
Videos
BuzzFeed's video section is a dynamic hub showcasing a variety of content, from short-form entertainment clips to longer, more in-depth series. It's organized into channels and themes, such as Tasty (recipes and cooking tips), BuzzFeed Unsolved (mystery investigations), and Ladylike (lifestyle and beauty content), catering to diverse viewer interests. Each video page is visually appealing, with clear titles, descriptions, and social sharing options. The section is optimized for mobile viewing and encourages audience interaction through comments, likes, and recommendations. BuzzFeed's videos emphasize storytelling, humor, and relatability, often focusing on popular topics and viral trends.
Quizzes
Quizzes section is a highly interactive area where users can take personality tests, trivia challenges, and themed quizzes on various topics like pop culture, relationships, and personal interests. Known for its colorful and playful design, the section has easy-to-browse categories, allowing users to explore trending quizzes or search by theme. Each quiz includes vibrant visuals, witty questions, and shareable results that users can post on social media. Famous for its fun, light-hearted approach, BuzzFeed's quizzes keep audiences engaged and returning, often encouraging users to dive deeper into related content across the site.
Arcade Games and AI Instruments
BuzzFeed's Arcade section showcases cutting-edge interactive games, powered by advanced AI tools that elevate the user experience to new levels. Leveraging technologies like Stable Diffusion for dynamic image generation and language models like GPT and LLaMA, we have crafted engaging, responsive games that adapt to users in real time. These AI integrations allow us to create unique gameplay experiences, where players can interact with customized visuals and narratives generated on demand. Our AI-enhanced games have transformed BuzzFeed Arcade into a hub of immersive entertainment, blending fun and innovation to captivate audiences in fresh, interactive ways.
Tasty
Tasty is BuzzFeed's popular food brand that offers easy-to-follow recipes, cooking tips, and engaging food-related content. Launched as a digital platform, Tasty has gained massive popularity for its visually appealing, step-by-step recipe videos, which are widely shared on social media. The brand covers a diverse range of cuisines and meal types, making cooking accessible for everyone, from beginners to experienced chefs. Tasty also offers a mobile app with personalized recipe suggestions, and kitchen gadgets, like the Tasty One Top, designed to enhance the cooking experience. The platform's focus on quick, fun, and delicious meals has made it a global favorite.
BuzzFeed Mobile Apps
BuzzFeed mobile apps offer users a streamlined, interactive experience that allows them to access various digital content, from breaking news to entertainment and viral trends. Designed for ease of use, apps feature a personalized feed that adapts to user preferences, making it simple to discover articles, videos, quizzes, and recipes. They integrate seamlessly with social media, enabling quick content sharing across platforms. With push notifications for trending stories and user-friendly navigation, the BuzzFeed apps ensure that users stay updated and entertained while on the go, catering to a broad audience with its diverse range of content.
Job done
The solution
FlexMade started with a small group of engineers, which eventually grew into a large team that focused on developing mobile applications, expanding BuzzFeed's web platforms by adding new features, building multiple internal services from scratch, and providing high-quality QA services to ensure a stable and user-friendly experience. FlexMade ensured team members were available during overlapping hours with New York to maintain efficient communication and effective project management.
The result
BuzzFeed has consistently expressed satisfaction with FlexMade's work, considering our team members as core contributors to their projects. A high level of mutual trust and respect marks our long-term collaboration. The expanded team allowed BuzzFeed to accelerate development, enhance existing products, and maintain its position as a leading online media platform.
The technologies
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Client's feedback
BuzzFeed
FlexMade has become an integral part of our development efforts. The level of trust, the commitment to quality, and the willingness to work as part of our team have made this partnership incredibly valuable to us. We look forward to continuing our collaboration.
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