Tumblr may be the latest platform to borrow TikTok's tricks. According to a note posted on the Tumblr Staff blog, the company is planning a major revamp of its platform. The revamp will include algorithmic recommendations in users' feeds.
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The memo openly lays out the reasons for the upcoming changes to Tumblr and outlines the problems the platform faces. “The underlying problem is that Tumblr isn’t easy to use,” the company writes. “Being a 15-year-old brand is hard because the brand carries a person’s preconceived notions about Tumblr.”
While Tumblr isn't providing exact details about its new features, it does give some helpful hints about what's coming in the future. The company says its primary goal is to provide great content every time you open its app. It also refers to the watch feed as "outdated."
To address this, the Automattic-owned platform says it’s working to “improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all data feeds” and “make it easier for users to understand where vibrant communities are on Tumblr.” The company says that building more creator-friendly features, such as improving how posts are replied to and shared, will be important in attracting new users.
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“Being a new creator on Tumblr can be daunting, with a high chance of leaving or becoming frustrated when you share creations without receiving engagement or comments,” the company writes. “The lack of comments stems from the outdated decision to only show content from blogs you follow in the main dashboard feed, perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of new creators.”
Tumblr’s changes are very similar to those of TikTok or even Instagram. They include algorithmic recommendations in users’ main feeds, creator-friendly features that encourage sharing, and improved tools . As a strategy, all of this may seem clearer in 2023, when users increasingly demand these kinds of features from platforms , which they already offer. Even though Tumblr has been around for a decade, its core interface remains the same. However, with the new direction the platform is taking, we’re likely to see significant changes in its overall dynamics.
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Automatic isn't trying to simply revamp the platform it acquired in 2019 with its upcoming redesign. The company introduced Post+ in 2021 for subscriptions and other paid services . However, it faced backlash from some longtime users .
