Tumblr, Inc.

Type	Private
Founded	April 27, 2007[1]
Headquarters	New York City, United States[2]
Key people	David Karp (Founder, CEO)
Industry	Social networking service, microblogging
Employees	105[2]
Website	www.tumblr.com
Alexa rank	37 (June 2012[update])[3]
Screenshot 225px Tumblr homepage as of 2012

Tumblr is a microblogging platform and social networking website, owned and operated by Tumblr, Inc. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog, named a "tumblelog". Users can follow other users' blogs, as well as make their blogs private.^[4][5] Much of the website's features are accessed from the "dashboard" interface, where the option to post content and posts of followed blogs appear.

As of February 27, 2012, Tumblr had over 46.2 million blogs.^[2] According to comScore, it scored 13.4 million unique visitors in the U.S. in July 2011—up 218% from July 2010.^[6] Its headquarters is located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.^[2]

History[link]

Founder and CEO, David Karp

Tumblr was launched on April 27, 2007 by David Karp. Marco Arment served as the lead developer, though he left the company in 2010 to focus on Instapaper.^[7][8][9] Within two weeks of its launch, the service had gained 75,000 users.^[10]

With Tumblr's 2009 acquisition of Tumblerette, an Apple Inc. App Store application created by Jeff Rock and Garrett Ross, the service launched its official iPhone app.^[11][12] The site became available to BlackBerry smartphones on April 17, 2010 via a Mobelux application in the BlackBerry App World.

Usage[link]

As of February 27, 2012, Tumblr had over 46.2 million blogs and more than 18 billion total posts.^[2] As of September 2011, the website receives more than 13 billion views per month.^[13] As of July 2010, the site receives 25,000 new users each day^[14] and as of September 2011, 40 million posts are created on the site each day.^[15] An analysis by AddThis of shares through their service in 2011 noted that Tumblr sharing had increased by 1299.5%.^[16]

The service is most popular with the teen and college-aged user segments; exactly one half of Tumblr's visitor base is under the age of 25.^[17] As of 2009, Tumblr had an 85% retention rate,^[18] compared with 40% for Twitter.^[19]

Many ask blogs-blogs that users send questions to, which are usually replied to in art form-have been created on it, Homestuck and My Little Pony appearing frequently as ask blogs. Sherlock blogs exist as well. Some of these have developed into roleplaying blogs.

Finances[link]

Tumblr's original funding came from Karp's earnings as a software consultant at parenting site UrbanBaby. Tumblr has raised funding from Union Square Ventures, Spark Capital, Martín Varsavsky, John Borthwick (Betaworks), Fred Seibert, and Sequoia Capital (among other investors).^[20][21] Tumblr shares two lead investors with Twitter. President and COO John Maloney was the founder of UrbanBaby with wife Susan Maloney.

The company had a $800 million valuation in August 2011.^[22] In September 2011, the company raised $85 million in a round of funding led by Greylock Partners and Insight Venture Partners.^[13]

Recognition[link]

• In August 2009, Tumblr's CEO, David Karp, was named Best Young Tech Entrepreneur 2009 by BusinessWeek.^[23]
• In August 2010, Tumblr was named as a finalist in Lead411's New York City Hot 125.^[24]
• Celebrities that use Tumblr include Lady Gaga,^[25] Zooey Deschanel^[25] and John Mayer.^[25] Many musicians of bands use Tumblr as well, including Tyler "Telle" Smith of The Word Alive and members of Motionless in White.
• In 2011, We are the 99% Tumblr went viral and became the unifying slogan^[26] for the Occupy Wall Street movement.^[27]
• On October 21, 2011, Tumblr became the first blogging platform to host President Obama's blog.^[28]

See also[link]

	Internet portal
	Companies portal
	New York City portal

• Pinterest
• Twitter
• Web 2.0
• User-generated content
• Comparison of microblogging services
• List of notable blogs

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Tumblr Staff Blog
• Tumblr's Official Twitter Feed

David or Dave Karp may refer to:

• David Karp (novelist) (1922–1999), American novelist and television writer who also used the pseudonym Wallace Ware
• David A. Karp, American sociologist
• David Karp (pomologist) (born 1958), American culinary journalist
• David Karp (entrepreneur) (born 1986), founder of Tumblr
• Dave Karp, a character in the 1992 film The Mighty Ducks

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