Popular blogging platform Tumblr will begin selling advertising on its site from 2 May.
Tumblr, which was founded five years ago, currently hosts over 52 400 000 blogs. The latest announcement will mark the company's first foray into paid-for advertising.
Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp announced the new strategy at Ad Age's Digital Conference on Wednesday. Karp noted he had previously said in an interview, with the Los Angeles Times, that Tumblr and its creators were opposed to advertising, and “it really turns our stomachs”.
According to Ad Age, Karp called himself an “idiot” for having said that, although he still believes that was a fair assessment of digital advertising.
Tumblr will offer the "Radar" space, which usually appears on users' dashboards, as a sellable ad unit from early May. The Radar has previously been reserved for officially curated content, highlighting notable and popular posts from across the platform. The Radar typically receives 12 million impressions per day.
Until now, Tumblr has made money from taking a percentage of the sales for custom blog themes sold on the platform. Users have also been given the option to highlight posts in their followers' dashboards for a $1 fee. The company reportedly has $125 million in funding.
Criticising competitors such as Facebook and Twitter, Karp said at the conference that such services lack creativity when it comes to advertising, and emphasised that Tumblr would have “no 140 characters and no little box” in its advertising.
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