Tumblr, a social networking site, a haven for Doctor Who and Sherlock fans, and an endless dashboard of GIFs, was bought by Yahoo on May 20 for $1.1 billion. Although similar transactions have happened multiple times in the past with no major consequences, such as when Facebook bought Instagram and Google bought YouTube, it caused a huge uproar among Tumblr users. The major worry among most of the Tumblr population is that increased advertising will destroy the clean, intimate feel of the site and that mature material like nude photographs will be censored. Some have threatened to boycott Tumblr or delete their blogs. Others laughed.
Schreiber students seemed much more rational and levelheaded about the topic.
“Well, let’s just say no one was saying ‘Yahoo!’ about Yahoo buying Tumblr. A lot of people were freaking out, but thankfully since the change, Tumblr has remained exactly the same!” said junior Sabrina Brennan.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the website, Tumblr is a blogging platform that is incredibly versatile and easy to use. Users can create posts that contain photos, videos, and audio MP3s, posts that are just a single line of text or posts that are pages long. Most Tumblr users, however, rely heavily on a feature called “reblogging” to transfer (with the proper source still intact, of course) a post made by a different user onto their own blog.
The purchase of Tumblr by Yahoo benefits both companies. Yahoo’s annual revenue has been stuck around $5 billion for years, and Tumblr’s revenue last year was a mere $13 million. The many blogs of Tumblr users serve as a great database of information for advertisers, and there is a lot of advertising potential in the highly personal and unique nature of the blogs.
“Honestly, I don’t really care much about Yahoo buying Tumblr. The company was going under anyway, and Yahoo saved it. Also, David Karp is still the CEO of Tumblr and has made statements about the fact that not much was going to change. The Yahoo CEO is a cool person who only wants to buy cool and unique companies. I don’t think anything bad will happen,” said junior Rebecca Schaub.
As mentioned before, a lot of Tumblr’s appeal comes from its rich culture. It’s a different website depending on how you want to use it. There are several separate cliques, if you will, that include photobloggers and fandom bloggers. Bloggers typically share a similar sense of humor. If you’ve ever seen an extremely popular tweet written in all lowercase with no punctuation or if your friend who you know isn’t funny or witty posts a very funny and witty status on Facebook, chances are it was copy-and-pasted from somewhere within the depths of Tumblr.
“If Yahoo wanted to make more money, maybe it should have looked into redesigning its logo first,” said Junior Rachel Johnson. “Like, how am I supposed to take Yahoo seriously when the font it uses looks like it was designed by a hillbilly farmer who never formally learned how to write in school?”
Although Tumblr users love throwing a fit, it’s pretty clear that no matter what Yahoo does or doesn’t do to change the site, they won’t be going anywhere. At least not until there is another website that is as much about celebrating nerdiness as Tumblr is, because that’s the one thing Yahoo and Tumblr have in common. And who knows? These two misfit companies sticking together against mainstream Facebook and Google may be a beautiful thing.