Comments on: Who Said Web 2.0 Was R.I.P.? Microblog Tumblr Raises $4.5 Million, Expectations

By: Karp says he’s going to start generating money in early 2009. Not by selling ads on his members pages–Karp thinks the site will eventually incorporate ads in some way, but not yet–but by selling users “premium” services, most of which he’s not

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:32:56 +0000

[...] Who Said Web 2.0 Was R.I.P.? Microblog Tumblr Raises $4.5 Million, Expectations [...]

By: Yahoo Buying Tumblr? “Categorically Untrue” | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:43:44 +0000

[...] of years ago, says: And here’s what venture capitalist Bijan Sabet, whose Spark Capital helped raise a $15 million round for Tumblr last year, says via his Twitter [...]

By: SnapDragon Consultants » Tumblr v. Twitter; Micro-blogging v. Micro-messaging

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:46:34 +0000

[...] the canonical micro-messaging tool then Tumblr might be the canonical micro-blogging tool. Tumblr boasts a healthy 500,000 users, but that’s still rather light compared to Twitter’s 3 million [...]

By: Sam Harrison

Sam Harrison — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:10:47 +0000

i’m happy for tumblr, let’s see what they do

why is everyone so darn negative all the time?

jealousy?

By: Nathan Quam

Nathan Quam — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:58:59 +0000

Has anyone actually checked out tumblr? I am amazed such a thing would obtain funding. I have seen reputable, very useful sites get thrown to the wolves while something so niche and worthless has money thrown in without a thought. This site is a fad, obvious by the name. This might get the whole ‘me too’ thing going but it won’t go the way of facebook in popularity.

Yes it’s easy but that just contributes to how easy it is to create junk and spam. People don’t pay for free things and the second ads are placed on this site its popularity will fall quick. You can’t start a site without ads and add them in later in a 2.0 atmosphere.

Not only do all of the blogs have the same horrible 300px width look but they are all just youtube videos and images I saw on real blogs earlier today. All of the “blogs” on the site are useless tidbits of copy/paste. They may have a lot of visitors, which seem like made up numbers, but the content is a failure. Who will actually stick around and read those blogs? No one will care because none of them will have a real reputation. How many times can we remake the same blog with the same wordpress layout and why would invest money into something that’s just copy/paste?

I’m waiting for the day when google starts lowering your ranking based on it being a 2.0 design or using a standard wordpress layout. There is a good reason why we shouldn’t allow every person in the world their own blog. Most people have nothing valuable to say or just repeat everything they hear like it’s news to you.

By: Eric Kerr

Eric Kerr — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:19:37 +0000

But yes, the real question is whether the fanatical users will pay money for premium features.

I think they took money off the table for allowing custom domains for free, as that would have been a good premium add-on.

By: Eric Kerr

Eric Kerr — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:30:58 +0000

I’m not discounting the newsworthy-ness of the round of funding; however, saying that they should be “gasping for air” is very sensationalized. I was just disappointed with how condescending the post was with Tumblr’s appeal – the use of “hipster vibe” to counter their desire not to create an ad-infested and shitty product, and wittingly mocking Karp’s promise to keep the service “really sexy”.

The point I’m trying to make is that it sounds like you feel there is little substance to Tumblr as a business. If you had used the product and seen how fanatical its users are, I think you would feel otherwise.

By: Peter Kafka

Peter Kafka — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:19:08 +0000

Eric, either you misread the post or I didn’t do a good job of writing it. The point is that whether or not you or any user likes Tumblr, it’s a revenue-free startup at a time when revenue (and profits) are crucial. So the fact that two major VCs are willing to bet on the company is newsworthy.

By: Eric Kerr

Eric Kerr — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:43:27 +0000

“exactly the kind of start-up that’s supposed to be gasping for air”

It’s painfully obvious that you’ve never used the service from the tone and disposition of this post. If you had, I’m almost certain you’d have a different opinion about their financing.

By: Liz Colville

Liz Colville — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:34:12 +0000

“A lot of work ahead of him.” True that. But the “re-blog” concept that Tumblr uses is brilliant, so brilliant that I started a Tumblr account even though I already have a fully-fledged three-year-old blog on Typepad. Another reason for my duplicity is the design. Elegant, simple, and easy to tweak yourself.

But the blog platforms–or someone independent–MUST find a way to better communicate with each other. It’s too cliquey right now. I’d like to be able to “re-blog” anyone on any blog platform.