\n<\/p>\n
If we\u2019ve learned anything from this past year of Twitter<\/a> clones<\/a>, CEO fights<\/a>, shitposting<\/a> and bad<\/a>, money-grabbing<\/a> policies<\/a>, it\u2019s this: making a social media company profitable is hard!<\/p>\n After rolling out some unpopular features<\/a>, Tumblr is now trying to \u201cbuild in public\u201d and be more transparent about the business behind the fandom-driven platform. In a livestreamed Q&A, CEO Matt Mullenweg and COO Zandy Ring fielded questions from Tumblr users about the company\u2019s direction. The executives weren\u2019t completely unfiltered (Matt, please, answer my question about how much money the blue checks brought in<\/a> \u2014 I want to know!), but they did offer some interesting insights into what it\u2019s like to run Tumblr right now.<\/p>\n According to Mullenweg, Tumblr is spending about $30 million more than it makes each year. This isn\u2019t too surprising, given Tumblr\u2019s history as a company. Founded in 2007, the blogging site was acquired by Yahoo (TechCrunch\u2019s parent company) for $1 billion in 2013. But by 2019, WordPress parent Automattic bought Tumblr for just $3 million. Though it has a loyal base of power users, Tumblr has also struggled<\/a> to grow its daily active users since its infamous porn ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n Middling social platforms have an opportunity to grow amid the \u201cexodus<\/a>\u201d from Twitter, and Tumblr is no exception. When logging into your Tumblr account, you\u2019ll see a link that reads, \u201cComing from Twitter? Sign up.\u201d And amid the backlash at Twitter\u2019s paid verification product, Tumblr increased its iOS revenue by 125%<\/a> by offering\u00a0two<\/em> blue checks for $8. These blue checks do not do anything. They\u2019re just funny<\/a>.<\/p>\n Still, Ring says that Tumblr hasn\u2019t had that dramatic of a bump in its user numbers.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have this impression that we have massive growth right now, and we really don\u2019t,\u201d she said. During this Q&A, which was promoted on the top of users\u2019 dashboards, only about 300 people tuned in at a time.<\/p>\n In November, Mullenweg told The Atlantic<\/a> that Tumblr\u2019s iOS downloads had increased 62% the week that Elon Musk finalized his Twitter acquisition. According to data that TechCrunch viewed from data.ai, Tumblr gained 880,000 new installs<\/a> across iOS and Android in November, up from 450,000 and 500,000 in September and October, respectively. But in the following months, its download numbers returned to standard levels (around 400,000 to 500,000 downloads per month).<\/p>\n This Q&A session took place a day after Tumblr published its \u201ccore product strategy<\/a>\u201d on its staff blog, which caught users off guard, since it looks more like notes from an investor slide deck than a blog post.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use,\u201d the post reads. It outlines various changes, like making the difference between reblogs and replies less confusing to new users, or collapsing reblog threads. In the post, the company wrote that it would improve \u201calgorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds,\u201d which some users misinterpreted as Tumblr saying it would force an algorithmic feed<\/a> on its users, causing uproar across the site.<\/p>\n \u201cChronological feed will always be an option,\u201d Mullenweg clarified.<\/p>\n The fundamental tension of Tumblr is that it doesn\u2019t have enough users to be profitable, but the users it does have are fiercely protective of the site\u2019s culture \u2014 and, they don\u2019t follow standard consumer behavior patterns (they will pay to send crabs<\/a> to their friends, but they will not pay to subscribe<\/a> to creators). So, Tumblr\u2019s emphasis on making sign-ups easier and improving discovery can feel like a harbinger of unwelcome change to the site\u2019s most dedicated users.<\/p>\n Through out the Q+A, Mullenweg and Ring emphasized that they would not make any permanent changes without user feedback. But regardless, making an extra $30 million per year is a serious challenge. Tumblr will probably have to do more than sell useless (yet hilarious) digital goods if it wants to stay afloat.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n