Verizon rumoured to be seeking to sell Tumblr

[kuhnertdm]

Original Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/verizon-looks-to-unload-tumblr-blogging-site-11556823135

Non-Paywalled Secondary Source: https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/02/verizon-reportedly-seeking-to-sell-tumblr/

 

Story: In 2013, Yahoo bought the Tumblr platform for over $1 billion. In 2017, this passed through to Verizon (and shortly afterwards to the "Verizon Media Group" brand) when Verizon bought Yahoo. Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting from unnamed sources that Verizon is seeking to sell Tumblr off. The platform was originally marketed as a "blogging" application when it was created in 2007, though it didn't really stay in that niche for long, evolving into its own format based very heavily around reposting media and adding a comment, creating comment chains through sharing.

 

Verizon had struggled for a while to properly monetize the platform. Last year, banned all adult content (a significant portion of the media on the platform) for a variety of potential reasons, including increasing the value of their ad spots (the most likely, similarly to Youtube's "adpocalypse"), trying to rebrand the platform as more family-friendly, and trying to deal with concerns of the iOS app store threatening to remove the app over issues of child porn making its way to the app. This significantly cut traffic on the platform. Those who only used Tumblr for the adult content suddenly had no reason to use it, and those who used it for other purposes suddenly saw a lot of non-adult content getting caught by the detection algorithms anyway. It seems that Verizon is now giving up the attempt to make the platform profitable, and is instead just trying to cut their losses.

 

Opinion: I had originally thought that the porn ban had accomplished its purpose, even if the traffic got cut. It is possible for a proposition like this to be worth it if the increased ad spot value ends up creating a net increase in revenue despite fewer numbers of users (i.e. fewer users seeing much more valuable ads can still make more money). It also very clearly accomplished the other goals listed above. However, it looks like the traffic loss was vastly underestimated in the tradeoff.

[minibois]

You totally missed the best news source on this:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/2/18527177/verizon-seeking-tumblr-sale-rumor-blogging

Quote

Verizon is looking to sell Tumblr and Pornhub is interested

(inb4 Verge hate)

 

Also, it's like.. Who didn't see it coming - people leaving Tumblr after also banning a bunch of (slightly) NSFW artworks on their site.

[Taf the Ghost]

The "slightly depressed but otherwise normal but really wants everyone to think they're unique" teen-aged girls demographic apparently wasn't enough to sustain the platform. That's isn't too surprising as Tumblr was already so pigeonholed that running off the porn and furries meant only overly wrought emotional diatribes was the entire content on the platform. 

 

Though I guess that demographic appealed to the former Yahoo staff enough to overpay for the platform by about 950 million USD.

[jiyeon]

17 minutes ago, Minibois said:

Verizon is looking to sell Tumblr and Pornhub is interested

As a person with a SFW tumblr blog, I felt a lot of things reading that line of text right there.

[Arika]

Dont blame 'em

[matrix07012]

Crap. It took me too long to post.

[Teddy07]

1 minute ago, Sushimus said:

I was literally just thinking about making an account on my way to school this morning, that's crazy

 

why?

[RejZoR]

Tumblr might actually be fun this time around lol. Last time it got stolen by social justice warriors lol

[Drak3]

1 hour ago, Taf the Ghost said:

The "slightly depressed but otherwise normal but really wants everyone to think they're unique" teen-aged girls demographic apparently wasn't enough to sustain the platform.

Wrong demographic. Tumblr is overran with virtual signalling SJWs.

[poochyena]

While their anti-porn and anti-female nipple rules is what made me leave, there was still a lot more issues with tumblr than just that. Tumblr desperately needs a dramatic overhaul to be good. The thing i could see pornhub doing best with tumblr is providing improved video streaming capabilities that could better compete with youtube. They already have the streaming networking down, so having a new platform for non-porn videos would be easy with the purchase of tumblr

 

33 minutes ago, Sushimus said:

I was literally just thinking about making an account on my way to school this morning, that's crazy.

 

Get a pillowfort.social account instead. its like tumblr but better.

[BurnedPriest]

I give them 10 bucks for it.

[DrDerp]

20 minutes ago, BurnedPriest said:

I give them 10 bucks for it.

I got 11!

 

In all seriousness I've never used the site so I'm kinda indifferent to this whole thing.

[suicidalfranco]

got woke

went broke

[Misanthrope]

Here's a plan:

 

1) Buy low

2) Re-enable the amateur porn with open arms

3) Profit.

[PlayStation 2]

Gonna catch a lot of shit for this, but we all know that Tumblr was home to a lot of... for the lack of a better word, degeneracy. Funny enough, while I completely understood why Tumblr did the NSFW ban, it didn't seem like it worked all that well, not to mention that shit basically just moved back to Twitter. I could see Pornhub buying Tumblr being a decent deal for them.

[poochyena]

3 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

while I completely understood why Tumblr did the NSFW ban

you can? What was the good reasoning?

[PlayStation 2]

2 minutes ago, poochyena said:

you can? What was the good reasoning?

Making it more ad-friendly. Simple as that. Verizon didn't wanna deal with the problems that come with not moderating NSFW content on a site. Doesn't mean I agree with their decision, but I understand why.

[poochyena]

1 minute ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Making it more ad-friendly. Simple as that. Verizon didn't wanna deal with the problems that come with not moderating NSFW content on a site. Doesn't mean I agree with their decision, but I understand why.

A site with 30% less users and shrinking isn't very ad friendly either.

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, poochyena said:

A site with 30% less users and shrinking isn't very ad friendly either.

It isn't, but remember, this is a telecommunications company we're talking about. They aren't exactly bright.

[Juniiii]

Who goes on tumblr for porn? Like pormhhb exists lmaoo. I’m sure tumblr would just end up like vine...

[Brooksie359]

1 hour ago, Juniiii said:

Who goes on tumblr for porn? Like pormhhb exists lmaoo. I’m sure tumblr would just end up like vine...

Well seeing as how much banning NSFW effected the platform I would say there was alot of people that went there for NSFW content. I would like to say that NSFW content doesn't always mean porn. 

[Drak3]

3 minutes ago, comander said:

Who do you think became SJWs?

Delusional people, mislead gay people, and losers in life.

[Drak3]

12 minutes ago, comander said:

In terms of losers in life...

I've come across a bunch of people at Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Apple, Netflix, McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc. who are making 100-500k a year (in their 20s or early 30s) and have VERY progressive, borderline (if not actual) SJW view points.

Thise fall under delusional people.

 

Losers in life are the poor families that remain poor out of choice.

[DrMacintosh]

Tumblr was mostly porn anyway. Once they tried to ban it (there is still a large porn presence on the site), a lot of users left the platform. It would be a great move for Pornhub if they bought the platform. 

[DrMacintosh]

31 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Losers in life are the poor families that remain poor out of choice.

What