Trigger warning: Tumblr to introduce ads on all blogs starting Thursday
Three years after its acquisition by Yahoo, Inc., Tumblr has finally decided to attempt to monetize its social justice warrior blogging network by introducing ads on all blogs hosted by the service.
The announcement, which is bound to cause outrage from Tumblr users, was spun by the service as a way for users to make money, with Tumblr offering to share ad revenue made on each Tumblr blog back to the blog’s creator.
What format the ads will take was not made clear, only that they will go live across all Tumblr blogs on Thursday and that “later this year people can start making money from their blogs.”
“Tumblr is a place where brilliant, creative, funny, impossible people shape culture,” the company said in a blog post. “Some of you have even turned your passions into jobs: book deals, music careers, paid gigs with the Creatrs program. Now, (soon!) that opportunity will be available to any eligible Tumblr—poet, musician, fan artist, and misfit weirdo memelord alike.”
How users will be paid is also a mystery, with Tumblr adding:
We’re still working out the details of the partner program but as soon as we have details to share, we’ll make announcements right here on trusty Staff. Just so you know: You won’t be able to make money until you register for the program—which is coming soon.
Furious furries, otherkin, aerogenders and others who use Tumblr who see the move as nothing more than an attack by the sexist, racist patriarchy will be able to opt out of the ads by turning ads of via their settings panel.
Triggered
The long overdue move to monetize Tumblr follows two massive write-downs in its valuation following Yahoo’s acquisition of the service for $1.1 billion in 2013; $482 million due to what the company described as a “combination of factors” in its Q2 2016 financials and a $230 million “goodwill impairment charge (in other words, a write-down) in the valuation of Tumblr in Q4 2015.
How much money Tumblr can make from ads is another question with the site being nearly as famous for its pornographic content as it is a bastion of social justice revolution; mainstream advertisers are unlikely to go near Tumblr with even a 100 foot pole begging the question as to what sort of ads the network will attract.
It may be too early to predict how the advertising will work out for Tumblr but given the likely huge user backlash and inability to attract quality advertising the odds against the ad rollout being successful are low from the get go.
Image credit: esthervargasc/Flickr/CC by 2.0
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