5 ms·

Tumblr Falls Into a Really Big Pile of Money

35 points by kmfrk 16y ago

JabavuAdams 16y ago
> Best I can tell, the real appeal for Tumblr is its go-go growth, and the fact that it’s doing it on a very light footprint. So, why do they need all that money? It's bizarre that there are companies testing and flying rocket-planes and VTOL sub-orbital rockets with much less funding than this.
- petervandijck 16y ago
  "Look at our hockey stick" seems to be the answer to why they're being given the money. Why they would "need" the money? It buys time, basically. Servers do cost money. Agreed with the bizarre comment.
- CoachRufus87 16y ago
  Perhaps it was one of those rounds where early employees could take some cash off the table?
- pclark 16y ago
  It isn't really bizarre other than on paper. Yes, in theory launching a rocket into space should be more expensive than hosting photos. Right up until the point you become successful at hosting photos and then suddenly hundreds of servers do not seem cheap. Also, good software engineers, good rocket scientists, probably same price - maybe even former more expensive.
pavs 16y ago
horrible writing.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
donohoe 16y ago
Tumble is 10 to 15 people with billions of page views. They could choose to be profitable tomorrow with one google ad on the dashboard. Definitely a company to watch...
- Zakuzaa 16y ago
  Yep, wordpress.com has been doing the same. Edit: but wp puts ads below the posts not the dashboard.
  - pclark 16y ago
    Wordpress has 70+ employees i think.
nhangen 16y ago
Valuation at 135 million...really? I love Tumblr, but they've not only failed to monetize well, but the few cases in which they have are rather lackluster. Their theme marketplace is a bit of a joke, and they are virtually identical to Posterous. I realize Tumblr struck first, but if it's that easy to duplicate your business, then how valuable is it?
- cmelbye 16y ago
  I believe that Posterous specifically made their theming language to be identical or at least similar to Tumblr's, so many themes are compatible and have been borrowed.
- rorymarinich 16y ago
  What's funny is that I simultaneously agree with you and think you're missing the point. Tumblr has done an awful job of monetizing. I'm pretty sure the team doesn't give much of a shit about monetizing, because they seem pretty damn happy with their site as-is and every monetization attempt of theirs has been something ephemeral and community-focused. The only one that's been long-lasting is their Theme Garden, which is poorly-designed and, I suspect, not very successful, mainly because Tumblr's primary audience is looking for a free, well-designed way to express themselves, and sees no reason to pay $49 for a pretty theme. But at the same time, Tumblr is immensely valuable, because it's becoming the go-to community for bored youth. Name a single community more geared at your average (non-techy) youngster. The only one I can think of is LiveJournal, and LiveJournal is not sexy. Tumblr is sexy. It is surprisingly intelligent considering how sexy it is, but it is not a web site used by people carefully calculating features and userbases; it is a web site used by people who like web sites to look and act sexy. (Sometimes I feel frustrated at Tumblr because of this; it's not really worth it. Nothing wrong with people who'd rather be sexy than smart.) Posterous has more features than Muscle Milk has nutrients, and Garry Tan (the only Posterous staffer I've talked to) is a superbly bright and kind person who spends way more time answering inane emails than a successful person ought to, so I like Posterous, but it is not a sexy site. "Sexy" isn't something you usually put on bullet point lists, but it's super-duper important, and it's very difficult to design for. Actually, I think there's a case study in design right here: The more features you place somewhere, the harder it is to make it sexy. Tumblr is very good at adding features and maintaining their inner sexy. Not just in how they look but in how they feel - I've never felt a site that makes posting new content feel as rewarding as Tumblr does. (Second place: Facebook, distantly; they used to be better at this.) It's valuable because a significant portion of youth worldwide are addicted to it. If I'm launching a new product (whether it's "internet service" or "TV show" or "me trying to be clever in a blog") I'm going to pick Tumblr over Posterous, because what I want isn't a set of features that make my job easy, what I want is easy connections to an enormous market that might latch on to me and make me popular/viral/book deal/whatever. (By the way, the theme marketplace is pretty poor, but the theme garden is one of the highest-quality purveyor of themes you can get for any blog engine. I wish Wordpress or ExpressionEngine or Drupal had themes that consistently sexy. But I'm admittedly biased: something like 40,000 people use my old Tumblr themes.)

35 points by kmfrk 16y ago

> Best I can tell, the real appeal for Tumblr is its go-go growth, and the fact that it’s doing it on a very light footprint. So, why do they need all that money? It's bizarre that there are companies testing and flying rocket-planes and VTOL sub-orbital rockets with much less funding than this.

petervandijck 16y ago
"Look at our hockey stick" seems to be the answer to why they're being given the money. Why they would "need" the money? It buys time, basically. Servers do cost money. Agreed with the bizarre comment.
CoachRufus87 16y ago
Perhaps it was one of those rounds where early employees could take some cash off the table?
pclark 16y ago
It isn't really bizarre other than on paper. Yes, in theory launching a rocket into space should be more expensive than hosting photos. Right up until the point you become successful at hosting photos and then suddenly hundreds of servers do not seem cheap. Also, good software engineers, good rocket scientists, probably same price - maybe even former more expensive.

pavs 16y ago

horrible writing.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

donohoe 16y ago

Tumble is 10 to 15 people with billions of page views. They could choose to be profitable tomorrow with one google ad on the dashboard. Definitely a company to watch...

Zakuzaa 16y ago
Yep, wordpress.com has been doing the same. Edit: but wp puts ads below the posts not the dashboard.
- pclark 16y ago
  Wordpress has 70+ employees i think.

nhangen 16y ago

Valuation at 135 million...really? I love Tumblr, but they've not only failed to monetize well, but the few cases in which they have are rather lackluster. Their theme marketplace is a bit of a joke, and they are virtually identical to Posterous. I realize Tumblr struck first, but if it's that easy to duplicate your business, then how valuable is it?

cmelbye 16y ago
I believe that Posterous specifically made their theming language to be identical or at least similar to Tumblr's, so many themes are compatible and have been borrowed.
rorymarinich 16y ago
What's funny is that I simultaneously agree with you and think you're missing the point. Tumblr has done an awful job of monetizing. I'm pretty sure the team doesn't give much of a shit about monetizing, because they seem pretty damn happy with their site as-is and every monetization attempt of theirs has been something ephemeral and community-focused. The only one that's been long-lasting is their Theme Garden, which is poorly-designed and, I suspect, not very successful, mainly because Tumblr's primary audience is looking for a free, well-designed way to express themselves, and sees no reason to pay $49 for a pretty theme. But at the same time, Tumblr is immensely valuable, because it's becoming the go-to community for bored youth. Name a single community more geared at your average (non-techy) youngster. The only one I can think of is LiveJournal, and LiveJournal is not sexy. Tumblr is sexy. It is surprisingly intelligent considering how sexy it is, but it is not a web site used by people carefully calculating features and userbases; it is a web site used by people who like web sites to look and act sexy. (Sometimes I feel frustrated at Tumblr because of this; it's not really worth it. Nothing wrong with people who'd rather be sexy than smart.) Posterous has more features than Muscle Milk has nutrients, and Garry Tan (the only Posterous staffer I've talked to) is a superbly bright and kind person who spends way more time answering inane emails than a successful person ought to, so I like Posterous, but it is not a sexy site. "Sexy" isn't something you usually put on bullet point lists, but it's super-duper important, and it's very difficult to design for. Actually, I think there's a case study in design right here: The more features you place somewhere, the harder it is to make it sexy. Tumblr is very good at adding features and maintaining their inner sexy. Not just in how they look but in how they feel - I've never felt a site that makes posting new content feel as rewarding as Tumblr does. (Second place: Facebook, distantly; they used to be better at this.) It's valuable because a significant portion of youth worldwide are addicted to it. If I'm launching a new product (whether it's "internet service" or "TV show" or "me trying to be clever in a blog") I'm going to pick Tumblr over Posterous, because what I want isn't a set of features that make my job easy, what I want is easy connections to an enormous market that might latch on to me and make me popular/viral/book deal/whatever. (By the way, the theme marketplace is pretty poor, but the theme garden is one of the highest-quality purveyor of themes you can get for any blog engine. I wish Wordpress or ExpressionEngine or Drupal had themes that consistently sexy. But I'm admittedly biased: something like 40,000 people use my old Tumblr themes.)