Tumblr facts for kids
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The Tumblr login/sign up page; a different background image is displayed each time the page is loaded.
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| Type of business | Subsidiary |
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| Founded | February 2007 |
| Headquarters | New York City, U.S. |
| Founder(s) | David Karp |
| Key people | Matt Mullenweg (CEO) |
| Industry | Microblogging, social networking service |
| Employees | 411 (as of June 2017[update]) |
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Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a popular microblogging and social networking website. It was started by David Karp in 2007. Today, it is owned by an American company called Automattic. Tumblr lets users share different kinds of content, like pictures, videos, and text, on a short-form blog.
Contents
Tumblr's Story
How Tumblr Started (2006–2012)
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The idea for Tumblr began in 2006. Its founder, David Karp, was interested in "tumblelogs," which are short blogs. He waited for other blogging sites to offer this feature, but none did. So, Karp and developer Marco Arment decided to create their own platform.
Tumblr officially launched in February 2007. It quickly became popular, gaining 75,000 users in just two weeks. Marco Arment later left the company in 2010.
In June 2012, Tumblr worked with Adidas for its first big advertising campaign. Adidas launched a special blog and bought ads on the site. This happened after Tumblr announced it would start showing paid ads.
When Yahoo! Owned Tumblr (2013–2018)
On May 20, 2013, the company Yahoo! Inc. announced it would buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Many Tumblr users were not happy about this news. They even started a petition that got almost 170,000 signatures. Despite this, David Karp stayed on as CEO, and the deal was completed in June 2013.
Later, in June 2017, Verizon Communications bought Yahoo. Tumblr then became part of Verizon's Oath company. In November 2017, David Karp announced he would be leaving Tumblr. Jeff D'Onofrio, who was Tumblr's president, took over leading the company.
The site faced challenges under Verizon. In March 2019, it was reported that Tumblr had lost many users. This was after the site introduced new rules about what content was allowed. By May 2019, Verizon was thinking about selling Tumblr because it was still having difficulties.
Automattic Takes Over (2019–Present)
On August 12, 2019, Verizon Media announced that it would sell Tumblr to Automattic. Automattic runs the blog service WordPress.com. The exact price of the sale was not shared, but it was much less than what Yahoo had paid.
Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic, said that Tumblr would work alongside WordPress.com. He also stated that there were no plans to change the content rules that had been put in place by Verizon.
In November 2022, Mullenweg mentioned that Tumblr would add support for ActivityPub. This is a way for different social networks to connect with each other. In February 2024, Automattic announced that it would start selling some user data from Tumblr and WordPress to companies like Midjourney and OpenAI. Users can choose to opt out of this.
Key Features of Tumblr
Managing Your Blog
- Dashboard: This is the main place for Tumblr users. It shows a live feed of new posts from blogs you follow. From your dashboard, you can comment on, reblog, or like posts. You can also easily upload new text, images, videos, or links to your own blog. Users can link their blogs to Twitter and Facebook so posts also appear there.
- Queue: You can set a schedule for your posts. This lets you spread out your content over several hours or days.
- Tags: Tags help people find your posts. If you upload a picture, you might add the tag #picture. Others can then search for #picture to find posts like yours.
- HTML Editing: Tumblr lets you change how your blog looks by editing its theme using HTML code.
- Custom Domains: You can use your own web address (like yourname.com) for your Tumblr blog. Tumblr now requires users to buy these addresses directly from them.
Understanding Tags
Tumblr uses a tagging system where users add their own tags to posts. The site also suggests popular tags. Only the first 20 tags on a post are indexed, meaning they can be searched. Tags start with a hashtag (#) and can include spaces and special characters, up to 140 characters long.
There are two main ways users use tags:
- Descriptive Tags: These tags describe what is in the post, like #art or #sky. They help others find your content when they search.
- Commentary Tags: These are unique to Tumblr. Users add their thoughts or reactions in the tags instead of directly commenting on the post. This way, their comments don't change the original post when it's reblogged by others.
Tumblr on Your Phone
Tumblr has official apps for many mobile devices. In 2009, they launched their iPhone app. Apps are also available for BlackBerry smartphones, Android phones, and Windows Phone. In June 2012, Tumblr updated its iOS app to include Spotify music and high-quality images.
Messages and Inbox
Tumblr blogs can let users send questions to them, either openly or anonymously. Tumblr also has an instant messaging feature, which lets users chat with each other. This messaging system replaced an older "fan mail" feature.
Features That Are No Longer Available
Tumblr has removed some features over time:
- Storyboard: This was a blog run by Tumblr that featured stories about interesting blogs and users. It was shut down in 2013.
- Group Chats: These were temporary chat rooms where users could share content in real-time. Posts would disappear after 24 hours. This feature was stopped in 2021.
- Post+: This allowed bloggers to earn money from their content. It was removed in January 2024 due to low use.
- Tumblr Live: This was a livestreaming service that launched in 2022. Tumblr announced it would be discontinued in January 2024.
- Tipping: A feature that allowed users to give small amounts of money to other users was removed in June 2024.
How People Use Tumblr
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Tumblr is known for its users often having socially progressive views. In 2011, it was most popular with teenagers and college students. About half of Tumblr's visitors were under 25 years old. In April 2013, the website had over 13 billion page views around the world.
As of May 2019, Tumblr hosted over 465 million blogs. It had more than 172 billion posts in total, with over 21 million new posts created every day.
Community and Identity
Many studies show that Tumblr is a place where people, especially LGBT groups, build communities. It helps them explore their identity and how they express their gender.
Tumblr's Business Side
Tumblr's main office used to be in New York City. The company also had a support office in Richmond, Virginia. As of 2017, Tumblr had 411 employees. Today, Tumblr (and Automattic) mostly has a distributed workforce, meaning many employees work from different locations.
How Tumblr Makes Money
Tumblr makes money mainly through advertising. They started showing ads in May 2012. In 2013, Tumblr began letting companies pay to promote their posts to more people. Tumblr also sells special themes that blogs can use.
In July 2016, ads were turned on by default for all blogs. Users could choose to turn them off. In February 2022, Tumblr launched a way for users to pay a monthly or yearly fee to remove ads from their blogs.
In July 2023, the CEO said that Tumblr was losing about $30 million each year.
Important Moments
On October 21, 2011, then-U.S. President Barack Obama created his own Tumblr account.
See also
In Spanish: Tumblr para niños
- Comparison of microblogging and similar services
- Comparison of free blog hosting services
- List of social networking services
