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In a nutshell: Automattic just announced a plan to run Tumblr on WordPress. The parent company of the two platforms wants to consolidate the troubled microblogging platform, shipping the two services together while separating their internet "mission" and business opportunities. It's a challenging task.
The company founded by WordPress co-developer Matt Mullenweg wants to use the WordPress backend to manage Tumblr's blogs. Mullenweg said the change should be invisible to outside visitors and Tumblr bloggers.
After acquiring the platform in 2019 for mere pennies, Automattic has been busy making Tumblr more efficient and convenient from a business standpoint. Running Tumblr and WordPress on the same backend would likely improve the management of the two platforms. The timing is worth noting since the company faced accusations of exploiting public and private blog data for AI model development earlier this year.
The unification plan doesn't mean that Tumblr must change – at least not on the surface. The company acquired the service precisely because of its differences and strengths compared to WordPress, not to water it down.
"We love Tumblr's streamlined posting experience and its current product direction," the company noted. "And this is not changing."
Using the same technical core allows Automattic to share its development work across both platforms. WordPress has a "rock-solid infrastructure" that will help Tumblr, while WordPress will benefit from the tools built for Tumblr. The two services will exploit the collective effort of developers in the open-source WordPress.org project.
Automattic claims that Tumblr hosts over half a billion blogs, and moving all that data to WordPress will be challenging. It's one of the largest technical migrations in internet history. However, many giant internet corporations have succeeded in similar behind-the-scenes conversions. So the move, while daunting, is doable.
The company provided no specific information about the time required to complete the process. It simply stated that it accepts the challenge of turning a lot of microblogs into proper WordPress installations.
"Content and data should be owned by authors and artists instead of getting locked behind the closed platform of a mega-corporation," the press release reads.
That's the core mission shared among WordPress and other company-owned services.
Marissa Mayer's Yahoo bought Tumblr in 2013 for $1 billion. Automattic eventually purchased it for $3 million, or just 30 cents on the dollar. The service was once hailed as a potential powerhouse in the social networking business. It is now just a shell of its former self, selling digital goods, advertising, and subscriptions.