As a pretty heavy Tumblr user (I run a news site there with nearly 100k followers) I'm extremely bummed-out by this news, partly because it seems like a terrible fit and could hurt the dynamic of the product significantly.
On the other hand, Tumblr has been bad about monetizing its product in a way that benefits both its users and itself. (David Karp is on the record as saying that he doesn't want to impose a revenue model on users—something he says would hurt creativity—most recently at GigaOm's paidContent Live conference.) I could see Yahoo taking over Tumblr and being more flexible on this front, which could be a good thing for Tumblr creators, many of which have been forced to troll for traffic on other networks despite the fact that their base is on the Tumblr dashboard.
Having attended that conference, it didn't seem clear to me that Karp had a lot of answers as to how to improve the monetization situation for both the company and end users (they've been pushing a blanket ad model that isn't targeted but is focused on exposure-style marketing), so it could be good on that front.
But on the other hand, this community already has a lot of frustrations with the way Tumblr is operated, and a purchase like this could scare much of that audience away.
I'm sure an exit at this point makes sense for the company. But the whole thing sort of bugs me.
Yes. Among them: Analytics that gave me some granular details on the path of a reblog. Ways to promote content that didn't annoy users (i.e. pinned posts). Security services to protect my site (two-step authentication, the ability to use something like Cloudflare). And group functionality on primary accounts, something Tumblr has never offered despite the fact that users have long asked for it.
I'd pay $20 a month for extra features, considering that's still less than what it'd cost me to host a similarly-sized Wordpress site and not have it crash on me during a traffic surge.
On the other hand, Tumblr has been bad about monetizing its product in a way that benefits both its users and itself. (David Karp is on the record as saying that he doesn't want to impose a revenue model on users—something he says would hurt creativity—most recently at GigaOm's paidContent Live conference.) I could see Yahoo taking over Tumblr and being more flexible on this front, which could be a good thing for Tumblr creators, many of which have been forced to troll for traffic on other networks despite the fact that their base is on the Tumblr dashboard.
Having attended that conference, it didn't seem clear to me that Karp had a lot of answers as to how to improve the monetization situation for both the company and end users (they've been pushing a blanket ad model that isn't targeted but is focused on exposure-style marketing), so it could be good on that front.
But on the other hand, this community already has a lot of frustrations with the way Tumblr is operated, and a purchase like this could scare much of that audience away.
I'm sure an exit at this point makes sense for the company. But the whole thing sort of bugs me.