The already-massive WordPress universe just got bigger – to the tune of half a billion Tumblr blogs. This follows Tumblr’s 2019 acquisition by WordPress.com owner Automattic for $3 million. Automattic has since worked on improving Tumblr’s platform by finding synergies with WordPress.
But during that process, Tumblr’s large bank of sites/blogs stayed parked where they were from a content management system (CMS) and platform perspective. Now Automattic will take the next step in swallowing all those Tumblrs so that they live on WordPress. This probably could have been predicted.
Meanwhile, Automattic is selling the move as a way to better serve both platforms. Its resources can focus on dev ops that accommodate both. This makes sense at a high level, and could work out well for Tumblr site operators in that they’ll get more attention and support than they were getting before.
Back-End Alignment
Backing up for context, the WordPress platform (WordPress.org) is the most prevalent publishing software on the web, running 30 percent of all sites. At its core is a simple website builder and publishing tool, but it’s infinitely expandable as a CMS with tens of thousands of themes and plugins.
Meanwhile, Automattic sits at the center of the WordPress universe. As an open platform, WordPress.org has no owner, but Automattic runs WordPress.com, the biggest onboarding source for WordPress site creation and hosting. It also influences the WordPress “core” as part of the WordPress Foundation.
Back to the Tumblr migration, most of it will occur on the back end. According to Automattic, changes won’t be evident on the front end. Instead, all those blogs will be moved so that they operate on the WordPress platform. This presumably means that the back end will look more WordPress-y.
This move could also work out well for Tumblr users in that WordPress offers much more expansive functionality – for the reasons noted above – than the deliberately dumbed-down Tumblr. We say “deliberately” because Tumblr’s selling point in its 2010s heyday was simplicity in managing a blog.
Another area WordPress can hopefully help Tumblr post-migration is monetization. The platform was losing about $30 million per quarter at the time of acquisition, and monetizes via subscriptions, ads, and digital goods. The WordPress universe is, again, much more expansive… including revenue models.
Cherry Picking
Meanwhile, WordPress users could benefit from a similar principle in reverse. In other words, the WordPress platform can ingest and integrate some of Tumblr’s features that it cherry picks. That was the case before, but it’s now easier to port functionality when everything is on the same platform.
But though all these benefits are fairly clear (and speculative on our part), it won’t necessarily be easy. This will be one of the largest technical migrations in internet history, admits Automattic. This could mean a white-knuckled few weeks for Tumblr site owners, not to mention Automattic support staff.
The key will be to do the migration as gradually as possible and in chunks. This is likely why Automattic didn’t disclose any specific timetable for the migration process, which is smart to give itself some leeway to do it right. In that respect, it can hopefully underpromise and overdeliver. We’ll be watching.
