Tumblr, a microblogging platform and social networking website, reached 120 million every month, founder and CEO David Karp mentioned during Digital Life Design conference in Munich.
Seeing the Quantcast figures, the website gets 15 billion page views per month. Interviewed by entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky, Karp talked about the company’s initial growth, decision to take the road less traveled in social networking, the unexpected advantages of building for creators, and Tumblr’s New York-centric culture.
The social platform intentionally avoided some of the standard features, including comments and tagging, of the garden variety social networking experience, Karp explained. “Commenting makes YouTube a horrible place,” he said, adding that being tagged in a photo on Facebook is sometimes an awful experience. Instead, Karp and team oriented the experience around the creator and the small company set out to build tools for that audience.
Tumblr today powers approximately 42 million blog sites and is behind the creation of more than 16 billion posts. The startup will continue to embrace its creator audience, but will also invest in reaching more international users, Karp said. The company will also use the months and years ahead to pursue “novel approaches to revenue,” as opposed to tacking on ads, that will fit the Tumblr community, Karp explained.
