How do you get maximum eyeballs on a job ad? In Automattic’s case, announce that you’re planning “one of the largest technical migrations in internet history.”
Announcing the move on Wednesday and calling for programmers to join the project, the company said since acquiring the microblogging site, it had focused on making it more efficient, growing its revenue, and improving the platform. Now, it’s moving Tumblr to WordPress.
The company clarified it’s not changing Tumblr or turning it into WordPress, it just wants to run it on WordPress.
“We acquired Tumblr to benefit from its differences and strengths, not to water it down. We love Tumblr’s streamlined posting experience and its current product direction,” the announcement explained. “We’re not changing that. We’re talking about running Tumblr’s backend on WordPress. You won’t even notice a difference from the outside.”
A migration has been on the cards since Automattic acquired Tumblr in 2019 and has its advantages. It will allow the company to build things once and ship to both platforms. Tumblr will benefit from the collective effort that goes into the open source WordPress project, and WordPress will benefit from the “tools and creativity” that Automattic invests into Tumblr, according to the company.
Still, as Automattic points outs, the move won’t be easy. “We’re talking about one of the largest technical migrations in internet history. Some people think it’s impossible. But we say, ‘challenge accepted’” the announcement boasts.
Posting about the project on his blog, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg likened the undertaking to Ernest Shackleton’s famous Antarctic expedition and the mythical job ad calling for men to join the hazardous journey for “honour and recognition in case of success.”
Responding on X, Stripe software engineer Anthony Morris posted, “Epic way to announce you’re hiring!”
Developer David Bell noted, “That should bring WP up to about 55% of the Interwebs!”
“This is so exciting. I hope this means it becomes easier to create Tumblr themes in the future; especially, dare I say, if they’re just block themes…” posted Seth Rubenstein, Platform Lead Engineer at the Pew Research Centre.
WP Engine’s Damon Cook added, “I wonder if there will be outcomes from this large migration that could overlap and help solve pieces of the Data Liberation project. 🤔”
The job ad for the project calls for “people with top‑notch programming skills.”
“If you’re an experienced programmer… if you’re a SQL‑slinger… if you’ve worked on other big audacious projects like this… if Gordian knots tremble in your presence, we want to work with you!”, the ad explains.
Founded in 2007, Tumblr was acquired by Yahoo for $1 billion in 2013 before Automattic scooped it up in a $3 million fire sale. While the microblogging platform has a loyal fan base of power users, Tumblr has struggled to grow its daily active users since its infamous porn ban in 2017.
In early 2022, Mullenweg took over running Tumblr following former CEO Jeff D’Onofrio’s departure, announcing that it was his “top priority” within Automattic. At the time, long-time core contributor John James Jacoby, also a software developer at Awesome Motive, tweeted, “Still thinking of migrating it all to WordPress? Anything I can do to be helpful?”
Running Tumblr has been far from easy for Automattic. In a livestreamed Q&A in July 2023, Mullenweg and Tumblr COO Zandy Ring fielded questions about the platform’s direction. Mullenweg revealed Tumblr was spending about $30 million more than it made each year.
In November 2023, an Automattic employee leaked an internal post revealing plans to redeploy the 139 people working on Tumblr to other divisions within the company. Responding to the leak, Mullenweg said the platform had been “burning a ton of cash” and the company had spent “north of $100 million above revenue trying to turn the site around” since Automattic acquired it.
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