Flipboard is acquiring Graze, a startup specializing in feed-building and contextual advertising on the open social web, to deepen its commitment to privacy-first monetization and empower creators to earn revenue through curated Bluesky-based feeds.
- Graze powers monetized feed creation on Bluesky’s open social platform
- Ads are contextual and privacy-respecting, avoiding user surveillance
- Flipboard integrates Graze tech to expand monetization across AT Protocol apps
What happened
Flipboard has announced its acquisition of the Portland-based startup Graze, which focuses on feed-building technology and context-driven ad monetization within the open social web ecosystem. Graze’s platform enables users to create customizable, curated Bluesky feeds that can incorporate ads without compromising privacy.
Since its launch, Graze has delivered over 41 billion posts to 12 million users and hosts more than 7,000 monetized feeds. The acquisition allows Flipboard to integrate Graze’s feed-building tools and privacy-friendly advertising into its own Surf app and its broader social products built on Bluesky's AT Protocol.
Why it matters
This acquisition represents a strategic move by Flipboard to support an alternative social media model that prioritizes user control over data and promotes creator-driven monetization. Unlike traditional ad models that rely on tracking and profiling users, Graze delivers ads that are context-based and selected by feed curators, preserving privacy and offering more transparent revenue sharing.
With a 70/30 revenue split favoring creators, the model empowers independent feed builders and communities to sustain themselves financially. Flipboard CEO Mike McCue highlights this as a step toward reshaping social advertising economics, ensuring that ad revenue benefits a wider set of contributors rather than a single dominant platform.
What to watch next
Following the deal, Flipboard will extend Graze's technology beyond Bluesky feeds to support all applications operating on the AT Protocol, including its own Surf app. This expansion could accelerate adoption of open, privacy-centric social networks and demonstrate a scalable way for creators and communities to monetize social content without invasive data practices.
Observers should monitor how Flipboard leverages its existing advertiser relationships to grow the open social web’s advertising ecosystem. Additionally, tracking user response to this privacy-first monetization approach, and whether it inspires similar models among other players, will be critical to assessing its long-term impact on social media business models.