Posts tagged tech

Well done, David Karp, Mark Coatney, John Maloney, and all the other Tumblr board members and employees past and present who contributed to a massive sale of a blogging platform for more than a billion dollars.

The blog I write, Journal of a Journalist, has more than sixty thousand followers on Tumblr. This, in itself, is testament to Tumblr’s success as a social networking platform—not as a blogging platform. I started using Tumblr in 2007, primarily because it was easier to use than Wordpress and because my own social community (NYC media people) were plugged in to the initial demographic the site was trying to attract. There were other worthy blogging software launches during that time, but Tumblr succeeded. Vox and Posterous, despite their very strong functionality, didn’t.

This is because David Karp’s peculiar brand of genius created the first mass market mobile-oriented social media platform; it only masquerades as a blogging platform. Looking at Tumblr, I see a crowded, frenzied social media platform organized around visual images and short bursts of text—perfect for use on your phone. But the traditional accompaniments of blogs? The replies back and forth, for instance? Or longform content? Not so much.

Looking around Tumblr now, I see a vibrant and amazing site. All sorts of subcultures - fandom, activism, art, ethnicities,.. Any subculture you think of, it’s here. But it’s here as a social networking platform.

In short, Yahoo just (allegedly) spent a shit ton of money on the biggest social networking platform that isn’t Facebook or Twitter. If Yahoo’s new order is filled with smarties who won’t pull a Flickr or Delicious and ruin a vibrant social network, we’re in for a fascinating, fascinating year.