Tumblr was one of the most popular social media platforms around 2013. But now, the platform is going through a rapid decline. On Monday, August 12, the platform was sold for 3 million dollars, a ridiculously low amount considering it was previously sold for $1.1 billion.
When the news came out about the amount it was sold for, the internet did not stop commenting on how low the price was. From Twitter to Buzzfeed, everyone united to bid farewell to Tumblr with a little bit of humor.
How is it possible that Tumblr went from being a popular platform to being bought by its competition, WordPress? The site was launched to the public in 2007 by David Karp, who wanted to create a platform where users could publish blog-type posts without following the traditional blog structure.
From the moment the platform was launched, it gained traction within the artist communities, gaining musicians, photographers, artists, and writers as its main user base. The platform had its most success within the fashionista community.
Its popularity was fruitful since in 2013 Yahoo purchased the platform for 1.1 billion dollars. For a moment, it was the best thing that could have happened to Yahoo, but in 2017 when Verizon purchased Yahoo, Tumblr became stagnant. Now, with Automattic’s purchase, we can say that Tumblr’s death is quickly approaching.
Since 2013, Tumblr has fought to stay alive, but in the end, it couldn’t fight with platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Its policy to censor and forbid explicit content in 2018 was the cherry on top to the platforms decline. From the beginning, the platform was directed towards artists as a platform where its content and community were free to freely express sexuality without limits. By creating this policy against explicit content, many of its users abandoned the platform.
We are sorry to say that the future of Tumblr does not seem promising. Now, all we have left to do is wait for a miracle, or someone, or something to revive the platform.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com