Widewalls
An online resource and marketplace dedicated to modern and contemporary art
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ABOUT
What is Widewalls?
FEATURED NEWS
Widewalls is an online resource and marketplace dedicated to modern and contemporary art.
Our renowned magazine already contains more than 21,000 articles covering all aspects of modern and contemporary art.
There are more than 35,000 artworks to discover or buy on Widewalls, as well as auction results covering 80% of the market over the past 5 years.
Established in 2014, with over half a million visitors per month, Widewalls is already amongst the top 10 online marketplaces dedicated to art.
The Problem
There are more than 20.000 galleries in the world, most of them being small companies with limited resources. Accessing the online art market is expensive and complicated for most of them. The current offering is split between:
A few marketplaces with a business model similar to Widewalls’. However, a monthly subscription to those platforms is very expensive for most galleries and is likely to remain so as those platforms have heavy cost structures.
E-commerce platforms, selling directly to end clients with limited or no involvement of the gallery, which acts only as a provider of inventory and is unable to build its roster of clients through them. They charge an expensive transaction fee (typically 18 to 25% of the selling price), plus generally additional monthly fees.
The Solution: Widewalls, the Dealer-friendly Marketplace
With fair pricing and fair practices, and services offered by no other platform, Widewalls is as an efficient complement or alternative to the more dominant players. We are the partner that the traditional art dealer sector needs to access and serve the online market more efficiently.
What makes you different?
Widewalls is run by a gallery owner, for gallery owners. We strongly believe that the traditional art dealer sector needs a platform which is fair financially, and truly help them access the online market more efficiently, without trying to: either cut the middleman (platforms such as ArtFinder or SaatchiArt) or by cutting them off their client base and transforming them into pure inventory provider (most other platforms, such as 1sDibs, Artspace, Artsper, Artsy, Kooness, Artland, etc), with no contact with end client before delivery, and in most cases with an interdiction to use client details to market their inventory directly to those clients.
Widewalls Welcomes Perrotin and 18 Other Top-Tier Galleries Into Its Marketplace
LONDON, July 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Widewalls, the online marketplace and magazine dedicated to modern and contemporary art, is delighted to announce that 19 internationally renowned galleries will shortly join its marketplace, in a collective effort to support the platform’s business model and foster competition in the third-party online marketplace sector.
How to Sell Art Online - 7 Tips for Galleries
Internet is typically cast as the great enemy of traditional culture, an entity often condemned for undermining the music business, the film industry and even publishing. Yet, one form of art seems to be able to adapt, and to perhaps even find a way to thrive in the Internet setting: visual arts, as well as the online galleries and aggregators selling them, are booming online.
In this respect, no other marketplace has a model such as ours, with maybe the exception of Artnet, but a monthly subscription fee with them is expensive for most galleries (3 to 8 times more expensive than ours) and is likely to remain so given their heavy cost structure.
The market
The total art market size is $67bn (2018), growing at a relatively slow pace.
The online art market though reached an estimated $4.64 billion in 2018, hitting two digits growth every year in the past 5 years. Art only started to transition online recently, and online art sales are anticipated to keep growing at an average rate of 15% over the coming 5 years.
Based on its current growth trajectory, the online art market is expected to be worth $9.32 billion by 2024.
(Hiscox Online Art Trade report 2019)
Widewalls is tapping into this market, but will also expand its offering to modern and contemporary design objects (furniture, or else). We can safely assume that this doubles the potential size of our Total Addressable Market.
Significant Achievements to Date
An organic traffic of over half a million visitors per month;
A brand new platform designed to allow horizontal and vertical growth, optimized for search engines, with excellent user experience, and easy to maintain. (Delivery : April 2020)
A database of approximately 21,000 original articles on modern and contemporary art, 13,000 biographies of artists, 35,000 artworks to discover and buy on the marketplace, 140,000 artworks documented with recent auction results, and 3,000 gallery profiles. In total, 140,000 pages indexed by Google;
A social media community of 120,000 friends, fans and followers;
11,000 registered users;
600 art professionals benefitting from our « freemium » services;
An efficient cost structure;
Sustainable competitive pricing allowed by this efficient cost structure;
An attractive business model for the sector (subscription based, no transaction fee, transparency of clientele);
A stable and dedicated operational team, based in Serbia.
Image Gallery Widewalls
CREATED
UK, 28th July 2017
INVESTMENT ROUNDS
STATUS
Startup, EIS approved
Previous Round
€200,000
LOCATIONS
UK
Do You Have A Question? If you need any more info, you can contact the entrepreneur directly.
Team Widewalls
Francis Berthomier
CEO & majority shareholder
After 20 years as a top level CFO in the financial services industry in London and Paris, Francis decided to give a different turn to his career and went independent for a few years, during which, amongst other activities, he launched in 2015 a successful e-commerce platform (IdeelArt.com) dedicated to contemporary abstract art. This led him, two years later, to complete the acquisition of one of his providers: Widewalls. Francis is of course an art lover, but he is above all a manager. Highly commercial, he thoroughly enjoys the daily connections with galleries, auction houses, art fairs and museums. Francis is directly in charge of all activities, but he focuses on strategy and business development.
Goran Prijic
Vivify Ideas - Outsourced IT
Equipped with a bachelor in computer science from the university of Novi Sad (Serbia), and after 5 years spent as a web developer and project manager, Goran set up his own company 7 years ago, and now runs a team of more than 100 geeks specialized in web developments. Selected amongst the best providers in Serbia to maintain and re-design Widewalls, dedicated, trustworthy, highly professional and always available for advices or to fix issues, Goran and his company provide Widewalls with highly experienced resources in a flexible and cost-efficient manner
Jasmina Sevic
Marketing
After her BA in Journalism, and a Master from the Faculty of political science in Belgrade, Jasmina joined initially as one of our editors. She quickly moved to deal with more technical aspects of our business, working hard to learn the ropes of content optimization, programming and digital marketing. She is now dealing with all aspects of our digital marketing campaigns. She is also a fan of electronic music, and a great supporter of the Red Star club!
Milos Antonic
Client Services and Artists Database
Milos joined Widewalls at its inception, just after completing his Master from the Faculty of Political Science in Belgrade. Dedicated, hard worker, conscientious, Milos makes sure that our services are delivered smoothly, and that our database remains always fully relevant and up to date. Our gallery and auction house partners appreciate his professionalism as much as we do!
Angie Kordic
Editor in Chief
Shortly after completing her studies in photography in Italy (Diploma from the Instituto Europeo de Design, Milano) Angie joined Widewalls as a journalist and was promoted Chief Editor 3 years later. Very mature despite her young age, she manages a team of journalists and external contributors, prepares and publish our 2 weekly newsletters, and manages our relationships with c. 50 international art fair partners. She is of course passionate about art, and photography in particular
Milan Nikolic
Head of Sales
Milan recently joined our team, after a 5 year career entirely dedicated to sales, and following a master’s degree from the University of Arts in Belgrade. Milan is impressively efficient and tech-savvy, with an excellent knowledge in both digital marketing and digital sales techniques. Hard worker, very professional, always composed, he very quickly adapted to the demanding environment of our fast changing company. Passionate about art, himself a digital artist, he is also the proud owner of a black Labrador (who will report to Nixon, our Head Mascot!).
