Tumblr: Riding the Micro-Blogging Wave?
June 29th, 2007 | Categories: blogs, launch, marketing, networks, social media, trends
Only in the past couple weeks has Tumblr come to my attention. Web 2.0 naming jokes aside, this new start-up has already made a phenomenal run since launching a mere 4 months ago . Banking off the hype of the “Twitter” space, Tumblr has propelled itself from an unknown to an Alexa rank of less than 5,000. I should have had Tumblr on my list of the the hottest web 2.0 start-ups of 2007, but they eluded me. In any case, they’ve accomplished a remarkable feat in such a short period of time.
Can the growth of the company be attributed to the actual service itself or the recent hype of the space? In other words, does Tumblr have a sustainable business model or is it just a fad?
The onslaught of micro-blogging start-ups and platforms has my mind spinning. Tumblr brought together the interface of Wordpress and the concept of Twitter to create new-ish service. Having said that however, the concept of micro-blogging is so dead simple that unless players in the space can differentiate with killer features, the market is going to get over-staturated and crowded very, very quickly. Furthermore, monetization has been an issue that has not been addressed. These start-ups are going to have to find a way to incorporate ads, charge for a premium service, or face certain death.
Don’t get me wrong - I love simple designs, simple concepts, and simple apps. But if everyone is making the same thing, I don’t feel very inspired. So I dare Tumblr and the rest of the micro-blogging start-ups out there to inspire me and show me something I haven’t seen. Trust me, I know what all my friends are doing RIGHT NOW.