Society6 at a glance
Society6 is a Santa Monica, California marketplace that prints independent artists' designs on wall art, home decor, bedding, accessories and apparel only after a customer orders. Justin Cooper, Lucas Tirigall-Caste and Justin Wills launched it in 2009. Today it is owned by Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC) and led by CEO Julie Matrat.
How Society6 makes money
Society6 is the retailer of record. It sets retail prices, has products made through production partners, ships them and pays the artist a royalty. Between October 2023 and early 2025, artists could pay $4.99 or $12.99 a month for plans that let them set their own markups. In February 2025 Society6 dropped those plans, removed shipping fees from artist earnings and fixed royalties at roughly 5-10% of retail price.
Ownership history
In June 2013, Demand Media, the owner of eHow and Livestrong, bought Society6 for about $94 million ($75 million in cash and about $19 million in stock). It was the company's first e-commerce acquisition. Demand Media added Saatchi Art in 2014 and later renamed itself Leaf Group. Graham Holdings bought Leaf Group for about $323 million in cash ($8.50 per share) in June 2021. After a 2023 restructuring, Society6 began operating as a standalone brand reporting directly to Graham Holdings.
Recent changes, 2024-2025
In October 2024 Society6 re-launched its site on Shopify with design agency Pattern, gave featured artists more prominence and launched duvet sets from $79 and sheet sets from $89. On February 3, 2025, it announced a curated, approval-based marketplace and removed thousands of artist accounts. The change made the catalog more consistent but upset many long-time creators.
Competitors
Society6 competes with Redbubble, TeePublic, Etsy, Zazzle, Minted and Fine Art America for shoppers. For artists, it also competes with storefront tools such as Printful, Printify and Fourthwall. Graham Holdings does not disclose Society6's revenue or headcount.
