Old-school social media platforms are diminishing one by one as they get no chance against modern platforms like Threads and X. According to Engadget, an internal memo obtained from Tumblr’s parent company, Automattic, reveals that the social media staff will be moved to work on other projects.
Tumblr currently has 135 million monthly active users globally, at least 35 million more than Threads. However, with the recent change, its future seems pretty shady. Automattic noted that it has “not gotten the expected results from our effort.”
As the alleged internal memo reads, “the majority of the 139 people” will switch to other Automattic projects. The remained staff will oversee the platform. This means we can’t expect Tumblr to launch new features. However, Automattic’s decision not to lay off the staff is appreciated. Automattic also owns popular blogging tool WordPress, the e-commerce plugin WooCommerce, and Gravatar.
Tumblr continues to survive, but the staff will switch to other projects
The memo further adds that the goal was to put Tumblr’s revenue and usage above its previous peaks. However, after putting in “600+ person-years of effort,” the expected result wasn’t attained. Finally, the memo suggests the team’s next step is to “reflect and decide where else we should concentrate our energy together.”
The news comes after the parent company announced its major makeover plan for Tumblr in July. Back then, a memo shared to the Tumblr Staff blog revealed the team was working to “improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds” and “make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are.”
While the company outlined plans for adding algorithmic recommendations and more user-friendly features to Tumblr, all of those plans became barren with the recent change.
Tumblr was founded in 2007 and acquired by Automattic in 2019 from Verizon. Since then, the platform has been operating on a wing and prayer. Automattic couldn’t revive the social app and lost the race to rivals. Given the skyrocketing growth of Threads, X, and even Mastodon, the Automattic-owned Tumblr stands no chance of competing.