Tumblr

Tumblr is a place on the internet where people can share short posts with pictures, videos, and other types of media. It was started in 2007 by a man named David Karp. The company behind Tumblr is called Automattic.

People use Tumblr to share their thoughts, art, stories, and more with others. Because many different kinds of people use Tumblr, it has become known for having lots of creative and unique content.

Tumblr has also gotten attention for some of the discussions and topics that appear on the site, making it an important part of online conversations today.

History

Tumblr was started by David Karp in 2007. It lets people share pictures, videos, and other content on small blogs. It became very popular quickly, gaining 75,000 users in just two weeks.

In 2013, a big company called Yahoo bought Tumblr. Some users were unhappy about this change. Later, Yahoo was bought by another company called Verizon, which also had trouble keeping Tumblr successful. In 2019, Verizon sold Tumblr to Automattic, the company behind WordPress. Today, Tumblr continues to operate, focusing on its basic features and making some changes based on user feedback.

Features

The dashboard is the main tool for Tumblr users. It shows a live feed of recent posts from blogs they follow. Users can comment, share, and like posts from others. They can also upload different types of content like text, images, videos, quotes, or links to their own blog easily. Users can connect their blogs to their Twitter and Facebook accounts so that posts appear on those sites too.

Users can schedule posts to appear later, spread out over hours or days. They can also add tags to help others find posts about certain topics. Tumblr lets users change how their blog looks using HTML. Users can also use custom web addresses for their blogs.

Tumblr works on many devices. It has apps for iPhone, Android, and other smartphones. Users can send questions to other blogs, either with their name or anonymously. Tumblr also has a way for users to chat with each other directly.

Some features that Tumblr once had, like special story blogs, group chats, and ways to earn money from posts, are no longer available.

Usage

Tumblr is known for the progressive views of its users. In 2011, it was most popular with teenagers and college students, with half of its visitors under 25 years old. In April 2013, the website had more than 13 billion global page views.

User activity, measured by the number of blog posts each quarter, peaked at over 100 million in early 2014 but declined to about 30 million by October 2018.

As of May 2019, Tumblr hosted over 465 million blogs and more than 172 billion posts in total, with over 21 million new posts each day.

Members of Generation Z made up 48% of active users and 61% of new users, showing a rise in activity on the platform.

LGBTQ+ content and community

Researchers have found that Tumblr is often used by LGBTQ+ groups to build communities and explore identity and gender expression. Before 2018, many transgender users shared their personal stories, including experiences of gender transitioning.

Keeping children safe

In 2018, Tumblr made changes to its rules about certain types of content. These changes were required by laws and also by rules from Apple for apps on the iOS App Store. The company said it wanted to keep the platform safe and fair for all users, especially its LGBTQ+ community.

In January 2022, Tumblr agreed to review its systems after concerns that the rules affected LGBTQ+ users unfairly. The company promised to improve how it handles appeals and trains its staff. In November 2022, Tumblr changed its rules again to allow some types of nudity, but not sexually explicit images.

Corporate affairs

Tumblr's main office was located at 770 Broadway in New York City. The company also had a support office in Richmond, Virginia. By June 1, 2017, Tumblr employed 411 people. Today, Tumblr mainly has a remote workforce, with just a small office in San Francisco.

The company's logo uses the Bookman Old Style font with some changes.

Funding

By 2011, Tumblr had collected around $125 million from investors. These investors included Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Martín Varsavsky, John Borthwick at Betaworks, Fred Seibert, Krum Capital, and Sequoia Capital, among others.

Tumblr's first funding round in October 2007 brought in $750,000 from Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures. In December 2008, they raised $4.5 million, followed by another $5 million in April 2010. Later, in December 2010, Tumblr raised $30 million. By August 2011, the company's value reached $800 million. In September 2011, they secured $85 million in funding led by Greylock Partners and Insight Venture Partners.

Revenue sources

In a September 2012 interview with Nicole Lapin on Bloomberg West, David Karp explained that Tumblr made money through ads. Their first ad campaign began in May 2012 after testing 16 different ads. Tumblr earned $13 million in 2012 and aimed for $100 million in 2013. That year, they spent $25 million to keep the company running.

In 2013, Tumblr let companies pay to show their posts to more people. The head of sales mentioned that typical ad purchases were quite large. Tumblr also sold special design templates for blogs.

In July 2016, ads started showing on all blogs by default, but users could choose to turn them off. Tumblr planned to introduce a money-sharing program later.

In February 2022, Tumblr offered a subscription for $5 a month or $40 a year that removed ads from users' blogs.

During a question-and-answer session in July 2023, the CEO shared that Tumblr was losing $30 million each year.

Criticism

Tumblr has faced some criticism over the years. One area of concern has been copyright issues. Users sometimes shared images that belonged to others without permission. Tumblr tries to handle this by accepting requests to remove such content.

There have also been security challenges. For example, in 2011, a trick led many users to repeat a harmful message. Tumblr works to keep the site safe.

In 2015, Tumblr changed how users could interact with posts. These changes were meant to make things clearer, especially on phones, but many users were not happy with the updates.

Sometimes, the way people talk to each other on Tumblr can be unkind. In one case, a fan artist was hurt by mean comments.

Tumblr has rules to stop content that encourages hurting oneself. When someone searches for certain words, Tumblr shows helpful messages with resources instead.

There have been reports that Tumblr was used to share messages that might influence elections. Tumblr has rules against hateful content, but some have felt these rules were not always fair.

Some countries have blocked Tumblr because of concerns over certain types of content.

In 2018, Tumblr made changes to limit certain types of images. This led to some users feeling upset, especially those who felt targeted.

In early 2022, Tumblr settled a complaint with the New York City Commission on Human Rights regarding concerns about how its rules affected LGBTQ users.

Notable matters

In October 2011, then-U.S. President Barack Obama created a Tumblr account.

In late 2015, a user on the website became well-known after talking about collecting items from a graveyard. This created some discussion online and was called "Boneghazi"—a mix of the words "bone" and Benghazi. The user lived in New Orleans, Louisiana, and had shared this information in a Facebook group called the "Queer Witch Collective." Later, the story was shared on Tumblr by another person. In January 2016, law enforcement visited the user's home and found some items.