tumblr
Timeline
February 2007:
Tumblr founded, with creator David Karp as CEO
November 12, 2010
Bruno, Antony. "Tumblr 4 Ya." Billboard 122.45 (2010): 9. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Tumblr becomes a platform musical artists and fans flock to in a similar way to Facebook and Twitter. Unlike those other platforms, Tumblr is branded as a platform that allows users to create their own presence rather than mainly browse. This allows users to let artists and fans connect “quickly and easily.”
January-June, 2011: Tumblr expands from 7 million to 21 million blogs, surpassing WordPress
August 30, 2011.
By July 2011, Tumblr reached 13.4 million users, a 218% increase from the year before.
August, 2011-March, 2012:
3rd party Missing E Tumblr extension controversy; Tumblr initially seeks to regulate these extensions but changes policy by March
​
Andrews, Robert. “Tumblr raises $4.5m second round; staffs up, preps premium model.” The Guardian.
​
As Tumblr grows, it raises $4.5 million mainly from Spark Capital and Union Squares Ventures. This allows Tumblr to increase staff at the company.
​
December 29, 2010.
David Karp heads to Silicon Valley to double Tumblr’s staff as Tumblr grows
June 20, 2011
Braiker, Brian. “Tumblr Surpasses WordPress in Blogs Hosted.” Adweek.
Tumblr surpasses WordPress in usership, nearly tripling from 7 million blogs in January to more than 21 million blogs by June. At this time, Tumblr has been around four years compared to WordPress’ eight years.
September 6, 2011.
Jeffries, Adrianne. “Missing E Developer Keeps Trying to Work with Tumblr but Tumblr Isn’t Having It.” Observer.
Missing E was a Tumblr extension allowing for enhanced personal customization. It was made by a third party and asked by Tumblr to stop distributing.
August, 2011-March, 2012:
3rd party Missing E Tumblr extension controversy; Tumblr initially seeks to regulate these extensions but changes policy by March
October, 2011
President Barack Obama creates a Tumblr
October 24, 2011
Greenfield, Rebecca. “Even Barack Obama Has a Tumblr Now.” The Atlantic Wire.
As Tumblr grows, even President Obama created a blog
December 23, 2011.
“State of the U.S. Social Networking Market.” Comscore
In 2011, Tumblr was 5th for unique visitors behind Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and MySpace, but 2nd behind Facebook for average minutes per user.
January 3, 2012.
Orsini, Lauren Rae. “Tumblr’s Wrath for Missing E Actually Helps Promote It.” The Daily Dot.
Tumblr threatens to revoke technical support for users that continue to use the Missing E extension.
March, 2012: Tumblr changes policy on self-harm blogs, offering resources and counseling
March 1, 2012.
Tumblr Staff. “Follow-up: Tumblr’s New Policy against Pro-Self-Harm Blogs.” Tumblr
Tumblr bans content promoting or glorifying self-harm, but instead of simply deleting blogs with no explanation (as some social media corporations had), searching for terms associated with self-harm such as “thinspo” or “suicide” leads users to PSA that offer resources for information and counseling regarding eating disorders, depression, etc.
March 6, 2012.
Jeffries, Adrianne. “Tumblr Says Browser Extensions Are A-OK, Despite Changes to Terms of Service.” Observer.
Tumblr says while they don’t suggest using extensions, they will not punish people who use them to customize their blogs.
May, 2012: Tumblr adds ads
April 30, 2012.
Dana, Rebecca. “Tumblr’s Growing Pains.” Newsweek.
Tumblr reaches 53 million blogs and now looks to monetize the platform. Starting in May 2012, Tumblr launched its first major revenue scheme by allowing users to purchase placement on the site’s main page -- visible to 110 million monthly visitors per month.
May 2, 2012
Paul, Sonia. “Tumblr Adds ‘Ads.’” Mashable.
Tumblr reaches 22 billion posts and decides to allow users and companies to advertise on the platform for the first time.
July 12 2012.
Walker, Rob. “Can Tumblr’s David Karp Embrace Ads Without Selling Out?” The New York Times Magazine.
Tumblr wanted to avoid using conventional ads and rather allow companies and sponsors a designated place on the homepage to raise revenue.
October 8, 2012.
Peterson, Tim. “Tumblr’s Ad Difficulties: Buyers Love Tumblr, Love Scale More.” Adweek
Tumblr’s ad placement tactics are ultimately successful as brands like Adidas and Coke see higher engagement rates on Tumblr than other platforms. Tumblr hires Union Metrics as its first partner in ad analytics to help brands track content and trends on the site.
2013
Milner, Ryan M. “Media Lingua Franca: Fixity, Novelty, and Vernacular Creativity in Internet Memes.” Selected Papers of Internet Research, 14.0,
Memes on Tumblr are shown to depend on “‘prepatterning’ from social contexts understood by the collectives creating, reappropriating, and sharing them.” This allows for a certain depth and expression among the community while potentially restricting participation for outsiders.
April 2013: Tumblr surpasses 100 million blogs
April 17, 2013
van Grove, Jennifer. “People Spend More Time on Tumblr than on Twitter or Facebook, CEO Brags.” CNET.
Tumblr passes 100 million blogs and tops Facebook as having the highest engagement time per user for a social media platform.
May 20, 2013.
Perez, Sarah. “Tumblr’s Adult Fare Accounts for 11.4% of Site’s Top 200K Domains, Adult Sites Are Leading Category of Referrals.” TechCrunch.
11.4% of Tumblr’s top 200,000 domains are adult fare, making up 16.6% of the total traffic on Tumblr.
May 20, 2013.
Alfonso, Fernando. “167,000 Tumblr Users Sign Petition to Stop Yahoo Deal.” The Daily Dot.
Tumblr users sign a petition to prevent the $1.1 billion deal handing over Tumblr to Yahoo
May 21, 2013
Madden, Mary, Amanda Lenhart, Sandra Cortesi, Urs Gasser, Maeve Duggan, Aaron Smith, and Meredith Beaton. “Teens, Social Media, and Privacy.” Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.
Percent of teens using Tumblr increases from 2% in 2011 to 5% in 2013.
July 17, 2013.
Rahmanian, Rebecca. “Tumblr Engagement.” Marketr.
People spend an average of 18 minutes on Tumblr per visit, more than any other platform. In the last month, users spent 24 billion minutes on Tumblr.
December, 2013:
Turkish student Atesh Yurdakul ”Xkit Guy” inaugurates an extremely influential 3rd Party extension on Tumblr, XKit
December 13, 2013.
Romano, Aja. “Tumblr Is Having a Love Affair with a Web Developer.” The Daily Dot.
​
The “XKit guy” (Atesh Yurdakul) has his own Tumblr following due to his work creating open-source extensions for the site. This is similar to the earlier “Missing E” extension that Tumblr resisted.
July 11, 2014
Perez, Sarah. “XKit, The Tumblr Client For Power Users, Arrives On iOS.” TechCrunch,
​
XKit is now available on the mobile version of Tumblr
December 4, 2014.
Diem, Noel. “Ferguson and the Effect of Social Media Activism.” Law Street Media.
​
Tumblr acted as a space for Ferguson activists to organize and publicize the Black Lives Matter Movement after the killing of Mike Brown at the hands of the police.
Dec. 16, 2014.
Eppink, Jason. “A Brief History of the GIF (So Far).” Journal of Visual Culture.
​
GIFs found a home on Tumblr after the decline of MySpace. Facebook and Twitter had not supported GIFs in 2007, the year Tumblr was established.
April-August, 2015:
​
​
Major Tumblr demographic reports appear; they note that Tumblr leans young, female, with more Black and Hispanic users than white users, more urban, less educated [note: these analyses of gender are binary, and do not account for more fluid gender/transgender/nonbinary identities]
April 9, 2015:
​
​
Lenhart, Amanda. “Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015.” Pew Research.
​
Girls are more likely than boys to visit Tumblr. 6% of the United States’ teen girl population is on Tumblr compared to 1% of teen boys.
May 2015
Sensis. “Sensis Social Media Report May 2015.”
​
Tumblr has a niche, but very active user base, made up of primarily people under 30.
July 26, 2015.
Hart, Matt. “Youth Intimacy on Tumblr: A Pilot Study.” Young. 23, no. 3
​
Young people conceptualize Tumblr as distinct from other social networking sites. It’s perceived as more intimate and community-focused than rivals such as Facebook or Twitter.
August 17, 2015.
PEW Research Center. “Demographics of Tumblr.”
​
​
Tumblr’s demographics lean young, female, and it has more Black and Hispanic users than white users.
August, 19, 2015.
Duggan, Maeve. “Mobile Messaging and Social Media 2015.” Pew Research Center.
​
​
​
10% of internet users use Tumblr.
February 24, 2016.
Wagner, Kurt. “Tumblr Has a New CTO: Brain Murphy from the New York Times.” Vox.
​
​
Brian Murphy from the New York Times joins Tumblr as CTO.
April 14, 2016.
ComScore. “While Facebook’s Users Mirror the Internet as a Whole, Instagram, Tumblr, Vine and especially Snapchat Skew Significantly Younger.” Graphic tweeted @comscore, cmsc.re/105FOV.
​
Only 12% of Tumblr’s users in 2016 were 35 or older with demographics younger than all but two other social media platforms: Snapchat and Vine.
July 22, 2016.
Cavazos-Rehg, Patricia, Melissa Krauss, Shaina Sowles, Sarah Connolly, Carlos Rosas, Meghana Bharadwaj, and Laura Bierut. “An Analysis of Depression, Self-harm, and Suicidal Ideation Content on Tumblr.” Crisis.
​
The results of a study monitoring 17 depression-related accounts on Tumblr show that 82% of randomly selected posts were related to depression, suicide, or self-harm [Ed.: How is it shocking that depression-related sites would have posts related to depression? Hardly a controlled study!]. This study advocates for more suicide prevention efforts on Tumblr.
June, 2017: Verizon Communications acquires Yahoo and with it, Tumblr, which it re-organizes under its Oath subsidiary
November, 2017: David Karp leaves Tumblr
May 11, 2016.
McCormick, Rich. “Tumblr’s new Labs program lets users test experimental features.” The Verge.
​
Tumblr releases Tumblr Labs, a new program designed to allow users more experimental features, similar to previous third party customization options like Missing E or XKit.
December 5, 2016.
Tiffany, Kaitlyn. “Tumblr Trends for 2016: At Least the Teen Had a Nice Year.” The Verge.
​
The most-discussed social issues of the year according to Tumblr are feminism, Black Lives Matter, police brutality, equality, terrorism, representation, disability, diversity, refugees, and reproductive rights.
June 21, 2017.
Tiffany, Kaitlyn. “Verizon is Killing Tumblr’s Fight for Net Neutrality.” The Verge.
​
Tumblr is no longer a vocal supporter of net neutrality after its acquisition by Verizon, a company notoriously against preserving net neutrality.
November 27, 2017.
“Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp is leaving the company after more than a decade.” Vox.
​
David Karp leaves Tumblr after founding it and holding the position of CEO since its establishment.
March 23, 2018.
“Tumblr says Russia used it for fake news during 2016 election.” The Guardian.
​
84 Tumblr accounts used by 13 people were found linked to Russia’s “troll farm” to spread misinformation during the 2016 election.
March- April, 2018: ‘Russiagate” on Tumblr; Tumblr releases specific information on user interactions with RIRA accounts
April 27, 2018
“Tumblr is set on terminating the fake accounts from its platform.” Wee Tech Solution.
​
After several accounts were revealed to be part of the Russian Internet Research Agency, Tumblr terminated some of the accounts and made their information publicly known. They also consider further restrictions on political content on the platform.
August 14, 2018.
Diaz, Jesus. “Tumblr is killing off its dot.” Fast Company.
​
Tumblr eliminates the dot in their logo in place since its establishment.
November 20, 2018
“Tumblr removed from Apple app store over abuse images.” BBC.
​
Tumblr is removed from the Apple App Store because it allowed some users to post images of child sex abuse. This was due to a content filter error and not due to a policy that allowed this content.
November, 2018: Tumblr’s App removed from the App store, leading to the adult porn ban
December 3, 2018: Verizon CEO announces that Tumblr will ban sexually explicit (pornographic) content by December 17, a move that is widely condemned by users and the press. Loses ¼-â…“ of users by March, 2019
December 3, 2018.
Rosenberg, Eli. “Tumblr’s nudity ban removes one of the last major refuges for pornography on social media.” The Washington Post.
​
Photos, videos and GIFs of genitalia and female nipples, as well as any visual depictions of sex acts, will no longer be allowed on the service as of Dec. 17, the company announced in a change to its terms of service.
December 4, 2018.
Ohlheiser, Abby. “Before Tumblr Announced Plan to Ban Adult Content, it Was a Safe Space for Exploring Identity.” Washington Post.
​
This article demonstrates how Tumblr’s usership changed after it banned porn from the site. The users depending on that community were left without a similar one to rest on after the ban.
December 5, 2018
​
Gault, Matthew. “A Quarter of Tumblr Users Are There to Consume Porn.” Motherboard.
​
25% of Tumblr’s users were there to consume porn, making their usership uncertain after the porn ban.
March 14, 2019.
Liao, Shannon. “After the porn ban, Tumblr users have ditched the platform as promised.” The Verge.
​
Since the porn ban in December 2018, Tumblr has lost 30% of its users.
August 12, 2019.
Broderick, Ryan. “Tumblr Has A New Owner -- Which Isn’t Pornhub -- And It Intends to Keep the Porn Ban.” BuzzFeed News.
​
WordPress purchased Tumblr and decided to keep the porn ban established in December 2018 in place.
August 12, 2019: Verizon sells Tumblr to Auttomatic, which owns WordPress, for an undisclosed amount thought to be as low as $3 million
August 12, 2019.
Hern, Alex. “Verizon sells Tumblr just two years after acquiring social network.” The Guardian.
​
Verizon sells Tumblr to WordPress
August 13, 2019.
Siegel, Rachel. “Tumblr once sold for $1.1 billion. The owner of WordPress just bought the site for a fraction of that.” The Washington Post.
​
Tumblr was purchased for $3 million in April 2019 -- a far cry from the $1.1 billion it sold for in 2013.
August 17, 2019.
Mims, Christopher. “Tumblr and the End of the Eyeballs- Are-Everything Era.” Wall Street Journal.
​
January 6, 2020
Alexander, Julia. “Tumblr is rolling out an internet literacy initiative to help combat misinformation and cyberbullying.” The Verge.
​
Tumblr launched an internet literacy campaign for the 2020 election cycle in response to Russian accounts spreading misinformation during the 2016 election cycle.
May 4, 2020.
Statt, Nick. “Tumblr will now remove all reblogs of posts that violate its hate speech policy.” The Verge.
​
Tumblr began to remove all reblogs of terminated accounts and specifically targeted Nazi or white supremacist content. Content deemed hate speech was limited in its reach on the platform.