Distractify

Founded by Quinn Hu, Yosef Lerner, and Jake Heppner, Distractify began in 2013 as a social media startup for viral content. The site reached 21 million unique visitors in November 2013. In 2013, 90% of traffic to the site came from Facebook. Distractify competes with BuzzFeed, Upworthy, and ViralNova.^[1]

In 2014, Distractify saw a drop in Facebook traffic after Facebook began to lower reach for meme-related posts.^[2] The site received $7 million in funding that year.^[3]

In 2017, Distractify filed a federal lawsuit against Brainjolt, which owns "22 Words", for publishing content which was similar to some of Distractify's content.^[4] Distractify has been sued in the past on behalf of photographers for alleged copyright violations concerning the use of their photographs.^[5]