Tumblr the Day After
ma.tt
Tumblr the Day After
1–10 of 62 posts
Re: Tumblr the Day After
#2Yahoo bought Tumblr for over a billion. Verizon sold Tumblr for under $20 million. Guess all that NSFW content they banned was worth more than they thought it was...
Re: Tumblr the Day After
#3"Automattic is still a startup — I’m sure there are deep-pocketed private equity firms that could have outbid us, but the most likely outcome then would have been an “asset” getting chopped up and sold for parts. [...] Instead, Tumblr has a new chance to redefine itself in 2019 and beyond."
I think Matt is right to point out the real story here. Automattic is simply the right home for Tumblr. Perhaps similarly to how SmugMug is the right home for Flickr.
Automattic is a company with a commitment to the open web and to effortless digital publishing. That was Tumblr's original vision, too, before it got lost in in the Yahoo/Oath/Verizon behemoth.
Automattic is a company with a long-term vision for what the open web means and how to monetize it so that valuable services can simplify lives for site operators, at scale. Just think of how many blogs and sites (and businesses) Automattic has enabled via WordPress.com, WooCommerce, etc. They can apply that same know-how to Tumblr's community, no matter how neglected it might have been in the Verizon era.
Verizon probably had no clue what to do with Tumblr as an asset, and I am sure they considered doing an orderly wind-down to focus on their core. This was a much classier alternative.
As Matt mentioned, Verizon does $130B in annual revenue. Tumblr was probably a strange distraction for them and had no chance of moving their KPIs as a business.
Automattic's acquisition of it was probably the best possible outcome, for Tumblr's technical & management team, for Tumblr's community, and, most importantly, for its future potential impact on site operators and independent web publishers everywhere.
Re: Tumblr the Day After
#4This is actually a beautiful commentary... kudos to Matt for writing this.
Re: Tumblr the Day After
#5Yahoo bought Tumblr for over a billion. Verizon sold Tumblr for under $20 million. Guess all that NSFW content they banned was worth more than they thought it was...
And/or maybe it was never worth over a billion in the first place.
Re: Tumblr the Day After
#6"Instead, Tumblr has a new chance to redefine itself in 2019 and beyond"
So, Matt commented in the other thread that NSFW content is not coming back due to the difficulties around hosting and processing adult content (payment processing, advertising, everything).
Where does Tumblr fit in 2020 between Twitter, Medium, and Instagram? What's its medium?
Re: Tumblr the Day After
#7"Automattic is still a startup — I’m sure there are deep-pocketed private equity firms that could have outbid us, but the most likely outcome then would have been an “asset” getting chopped up and sold for parts. [...] Instead, Tumblr has a new chance to redefine itself in 2019 and beyond." I think Matt is right to point out the real story here. Automattic is simply the right home for Tumblr. Perhaps similarly to how…
I feel like the smart thing for Verizon to do is to sell it to Automattic but maintain some equity.
Does anyone know if they did that?
They're smart enough to do know that they won't be able to develop it under their own management. But having some presumably better managers develop it and maintaining a stake is probably more profitable than simply selling it off to the highest bidder. And definitely more profitable than selling it "for parts", or closing it down.
Re: Tumblr the Day After
#8"Instead, Tumblr has a new chance to redefine itself in 2019 and beyond" So, Matt commented in the other thread that NSFW content is not coming back due to the difficulties around hosting and processing adult content (payment processing, advertising, everything). Where does Tumblr fit in 2020 between Twitter, Medium, and Instagram? What's its medium?
I feel the core audience and aesthetic of tumblr, in its prime, was a beautiful thing. There's a chance to recapture that essence. Twitter, Medium, and Instagram are watered down commercialized pos. Not saying Tumblr will be better than that, but they have an opportunity to do so. There is still a nostalgia in people's mind about Tumblr.
Re: Tumblr the Day After
#9Interesting to also compare and contrast to his post on the initial acquisition by Yahoo:
Re: Tumblr the Day After
#10My only real interaction with WordPress was when I purchased, and then promptly cancelled, a premium subscription. But the process was so unexpectedly easy and the employee was so unexpectedly nice and helpful. She really bent over backwards to help me even though I was leaving.
It might be silly, but that one interaction coupled with Matt's consistently well spoken/written/thought out public comments lead me to believe he & his company are pretty trustworthy. (The fun little smiley faces & haikus they hide all over the site don't hurt either.)
I hope they got a great deal on Tumblr. It's a really special site and I don't think there are many companies that would have the resources and the motivation to build it back up again. It seems Automattic has both.