How Tumblr went from $1 billion Yahoo payday to $3 million fire sale – CNBC

In this weekly series, CNBC takes a look at companies that made the inaugural Disruptor 50 list, 10 years later.Tumblr — the short form, multi-media blogging platform, that in many ways defined the online sensibilities of a coming-of-age generation — turned 15 this year.Despite recent years of waning users and declining cultural relevance, 2022 has offered a glimpse into the platform’s hope for re-cultivated popularity and significance, as new leadership leans into the ethos of creativity that first begat the platform. From its beginnings, Tumblr was characterized by its rejection of the mainstream and its embrace of unfettered creativity.In 2007, after stumbling upon a microblog called Projectionist, which tracked together tumblelogs — a blog variation that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over longer editorial posts — Tumblr co-founder David Karp became fascinated with this alternative to traditional blogging. He paused his software consulting endeavor and focused on creating his own tumbleblog platform — which he subsequently named, Tumblr. The platform allowed users to post a myriad of different content, from photos and gifs to music and text entries. From its inception, Karp prioritized features that he believed would cultivate the most creativity — and rejected the monetary and status driven incentives that he…
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