Tumblr started just over 4 and half years ago and is only just recently starting to rock but man is it rocking, this week it secured $85 in a new round of funding. Four and a half years for a tech startup doesn’t make it old but it’s definitely not young and most companies that don’t get traction in the first couple of years are usually in danger of never getting it at all. However, Tumblr got the traction late but boy did it get it, but why?
In other posts I have talked about convergence and how technology by itself is never successful, it always requires a convergence with other factors and these can be quite simple or a downright complex mix match of factors and Tumblr is no exception. The example I always like to use is electricity; it took decades to gain real traction because it needed user adaptation, social acceptance, mechanical adaptation (companies had steam powered factories) etc so all of those factors needed to come together to get that traction.
Simplicity and increasing social sharing of information
Tumblr is no different. Nearly 5 years ago when they started out, social propagation of information was nothing compared to what it is today. As Mark Zuckerberg, in his f8 keynote, mentioned that year on year people double the amount of data they have on the Web and they are sharing like they never have before.
There are also other convergence issues such as five or six years ago, for example, it wasn’t very easy to find a video and insert it into a post, but now you can locate a video in seconds on YouTube and insert it on your blog. Also, creating a blog and maintaining it required certain technical knowledge now it is a piece of cake.
Thank you Facebook and Twitter
These are just some simple examples of the converegence that has taken place over the last few years to favor blogging, but why has the sun shined so favorably on Tumblr and not wordpress (as much) “Tumblr’s pageviews per month this year have gone from 2 billion to 13 billion; mobile pageviews have increased 17 times during the same period… via @techcrunch”?
It has taken us time to get used to our made to measure networks such as Facebook, Twitter where we share information with others that share with us. This is now totally mainstream and it is now when it is been leverage by Tumblr through it’s ecosystem for blog sharing.
To reblog or not to reblog that is the question!!!
The possibility to reblog a post you like for me is the essence of Tumblr’s success and where it all converged. How do you share information with your wordpress blog? You Tweet it, you Facebook it, you Linkedin it, or maybe you have a tool that does all of that, but it’s not as simple as a 1 click and then share but you share it within your own ecosystem!
There are other benefits such as following others that came about from Twitter, which was developed by ex-Digg CEO Kevin Rose over 2 years ago, and having features to analyze access details without having to go to Google analytics…the convergence list goes on.
In summary, technology without convergence is just technology that won’t impact on society and leave a real dent. Tumblr is a great example as it took 4 years to be an overnight success.
Are you thinking about setting up a tech startup, or have you set one up already? Do you think about convergence in this context? What are the points of convergence that you will need for it to be a success in the future, can you wait that long?
