The microblogging site that’s home to image lovers everywhere is growing by leaps and bounds. So much so, in fact, Tumblr has secured new funding, thanks, in large part, to the massive amount of pageviews it receives on a daily basis.
First, the funding. The NYT reported that Tumblr received an additional $85 million in funding from a number of venture capitalists, including Virgin’s Richard Branson. The $85 million increases Tumblr’s funding amount to $125 million. The reason for Tumblr is receiving all this cash comes from its ever-growing popularity.
In other words, Tumblr gets a lot of pageviews. In fact, according to a report from TechCrunch, Tumblr’s 6.5 billion monthly pageviews are more than Wikipedia’s count, which is at 5.6 billion. TechCrunch’s figures come courtesy of comScore. It should also be noted that Tumblr has more monthly pageviews than Twitter, but Twitter has more unique visitors than Tumblr does. Discussing Tumblr’s popularity, the Times’ article references a Nielsen report, which says, “Tumblr Nearly Tripled its Unique U.S. Audience” and offers the following:
New social networks emerge on a daily basis, creating fresh outlets for consumers and brands alike. Tumblr, which combines elements of blogging and Twitter by letting users post and customize everything from pictures and videos to links and quotes, has grown significantly over the last couple of years to become the 8th largest site in the U.S. Social Networks and Blogs category. An analysis of online buzz by NM Incite shows that Tumblr is also a popular conversation topic, generating an average of 21,280 messages and links
per day to the site during May 2011, spreading critical word-of-mouth fueling its viral growth.
Nielsen’s report also reveals that teenage females are big users of Tumblr’s service, so much so, in fact, female teens are “more represented on Tumblr than on any of the other 9 social networks.”
As many of you are already aware, the female teenager is an attractive demographic if only for the access to their parents’ disposable income and the willingness to spend it. With that in mind, should we expect Tumblr to start rolling out advertisements for Coach purses and Ugg boots? It wouldn’t be surprising.
As it stands, there is no advertising on Tumblr’s service, and some have questioned the service’s business model, especially in the comments of the NYT post. Is Tumblr priming itself for a bidding war for the rights to purchase the service? Or will Tumblr introduce advertising, especially as the service’s growth continues at the exponential rate it currently enjoys?
Let us know what you think.