Yahoo! compra Tumblr per 1 miliardo. Sperando non faccia la fine di Flickr

Yahoo! ha acquistato Tumblr per la cifra non indifferente di 1.1 miliardi di dollari. Un'acquisizione importante per entrambe le aziende e di cui si discuteva già da qualche giorno, con qualcuno che paventava anche l'arrivo del terzo incomodo Facebook, che dopo l'acquisizione di Instagram avrebbe potuto volersi accaparrare uno dei social maggiormente in espansione in questi ultimi mesi.

I numeri di Tumblr li dà direttamente Marissa Mayer, Presidente di Yahoo!, in un post sul suo di tumblr, in cui conferma l'acquisto: "Tumblr ospita 105 milioni di blog. Con più di 300 milioni di visitatori unici al mese e 120 mila nuovi iscritti al giorno è uno dei media con la maggiore crescita al mondo". Numeri enormi che, però, per molti osservatori non giustificano un impegno così oneroso da parte del colosso americano.

Curiosamente lo stesso Presidente di Yahoo comincia il proprio post con una battuta autoironica, ovvero "We promise not to screw it up", ovvero "Promettiamo di non mandare tutto in malora", che come inizio non è proprio dei migliori anche se visto quello che è successo con Flickr, forse un incoraggiamento agli utenti di sito di blogging era, effettivamente, utile.

Successivamente rassicura che per Tumblr, anche nel proprio organigramma e nei propri obiettivi, non cambierà nulla, anzi, "Yahoo! aiuterà Tumblr a migliorare sempre di più, e più velocemente".

Anche il Ceo di Tumblr Andy Karp scrive un post sul tumblr dello staff in cui riprende il post della Mayer e rassicura che più o meno nulla cambierà, neanche il viola, colore caratteristico del sito.

Il post completo della Mayer è questo

I’m delighted to announce that we’ve reached an agreement to acquire Tumblr! 

We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster.

Tumblr has built an amazing place to follow the world’s creators. From art to architecture, fashion to food, Tumblr hosts 105 million different blogs. With more than 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day, Tumblr is one of thefastest-growing media networks in the world. Tumblr sees 900 posts per second (!) and 24 billion minutes spent onsite each month. On mobile, more than half of Tumblr’s users are using the mobile app, and those users do an average of 7 sessions per day. Tumblr’s tremendous popularity and engagement among creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a significant new community of users to the Yahoo! network. The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! could grow Yahoo!’s audience by 50% to more than a billion monthly visitors, and could grow traffic by approximately 20%.

In terms of working together, Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love. In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more arriving each day) to Yahoo!’s media network and search experiences. The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance user experience.

As I’ve said before, companies are all about people. Getting to know the Tumblr team has been really amazing. I’ve long held the view that in all things art and design, you can feel the spirit and demeanor of those who create them. That’s why it was no surprise to me that David Karp is one of the nicest, most empathetic people I’ve ever met. He’s also one of the most perceptive, capable entrepreneurs I’ve worked with. His respect for Tumblr’s community of creators is awesome, and I’m absolutely delighted to have him and his entire team join Yahoo!. 

Both Tumblr and Yahoo! share a vision to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas by focusing on users, design — and building experiences that delight and inspire the world every day.

Quello di David Karp, invece, è qui:

Everyone, I’m elated to tell you that Tumblr will be joining Yahoo.

Before touching on how awesome this is, let me try to allay any concerns: We’re not turning purple. Our headquarters isn’t moving. Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission – to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve – certainly isn’t changing.

So what’s new? Simply, Tumblr gets better faster. The work ahead of us remains the same – and we still have a long way to go! – but with more resources to draw from.

Yahoo is the original Internet company, and Marissa and her team share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. I couldn’t be more excited to have her help. We also share a vision for Tumblr’s business that doesn’t compromise the community and product we love. Plus both our logos end with punctuation!

As always, everything that Tumblr is, we owe to this unbelievable community. We won’t let you down.

Fuck yeah,
David