Yahoo’s back in the game with the recent confirmation that it is indeed buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion. According to CEO David Karp, “The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.”
Interestingly, as Tumblr fans heard about the new deal with Yahoo, some are already considering leaving, as the on-going shifts of social networking platforms continues to move.
As our research at Label Networks show, Tumblr is an attractive platform for youth culture users. As many continue to leave Facebook, there’s a strong growth pattern among certain demographics for Tumblr (see also our Digital Lifestyle Report). Tumblr’s attractiveness in part is because it’s easier to blog and post images, and it’s a social media platform that parents are NOT on.
ahoo, meanwhile, has been trying to attract a younger demographic, as is most every social network and online site in efforts to increase ad revenue. Tumblr will use Yahoo’s technology for better search capabilities to find interested related personal content, which also provides more targeted advertising.
This may be what ultimately turns-off Tumblr users however. Still, with more than 50 billion blog posts on the Tumblr platform, it’s a massively important buy for Yahoo.
