Fast Company ranks Buzzfeed as the most innovative company of 2016

Fast Company has just come out with its top 50 most innovative companies of 2016.

It ranks Buzzfeed as numero uno (No. 1) for shaking up media across the globe.

BuzzFeed is a New York-based Internet media company founded in 2006 by the entrepreneur Jonah Peretti. Known for its highly shareable news posts, quizzes, and its signature “listicles,” BuzzFeed has grown to include 11 editions–from Australia to Mexico–and has raised $300 million in capital as of January 2016. But while it continues to dazzle the world with cat GIFs and funny lists, BuzzFeed has also transferred its specific brand of virality to deep political coverage, personal and critical essays, and breaking and in-depth global news.

To accomplish that pivot, BuzzFeed has thrown its weight behind social media, which delivers 75% of its traffic. In 2015, it launched on Snapchat Discover, which now garners 21% of its traffic–nearly a third of its total readership. And the brand has a growing presence in video, too (a “S’mores Dip” tutorial in 2015 snagged 123 million views on Facebook). With an almost protean ability to reinvent itself and plenty of outside investment (most recently, an infusion of $200 million from NBC Universal in 2015), BuzzFeed will look to continue evolving as it scales, potentially pursuing an IPO.

Fast Company lists the following as the company’s competitive advantage in 2016:

• Massive reader base
• High brand recognition
• An infusion of capital, including a $200 million round in 2015 from NBC Universal

Here are the other companies in the top 10 list:

2.  Facebook – For not letting size get in the way of acting like a startup

3.  CVS Health – For becoming a one-stop health shop

4.  Uber – For hustling corporate business

5.  Netflix – For giving unexpected audiences exactly what they want

6.  Amazon – For evolving from commerce to cool cloud services

7.  Apple – For acing its China test

8.  Alphabet – For finding a better way to bet big

9.  Black Lives Matter – For turning the conversation about race into results

10. Taco Bell – For combining corn, beans, meat, and cheese into genius

According to the company, this is how they came up with the list.

The world of innovation has become so vast and far reaching that Fast Company did two things differently to produce our 2016 list.

One, we started earlier than ever: in March 2015.

In addition, we decided to augment the ideas of our writers and editors with the power of machine intelligence. We partnered with Quid, a San Francisco–based startup whose software can read millions of news articles, blog posts, company profiles, and patents—and offer immediate insight by organizing that content visually. A team of researchers created topographical maps of innovation across more than 40 sectors of the economy to identify the most relevant trends—along with the companies instigating or best capitalizing on them. Fast Company supplemented the ideas Quid surfaced with the reporting of our own team to vet them. Add a dollop of editorial judgment and— voilà!—we created the top-10 lists that appear here.

Do you agree with the list? Let us know your thoughts.