Tumblr's Traffic Growth May Have Flattened

Posted on January 21, 2014

Forbes is reporting that Tumblr's traffic growth appears to have flattened. Comscore data shows the unique visitors to Tumblr hovering at around 47.5 million for the past several months.

Tumblr responded to Forbes with an email and said that Comscore does not fully capture mobile traffic or in-app traffic. Tumblr says it has grown by 55% total engagement growth and 251% mobile growth over the past year. Mobile traffic can complicate traffic measurement, so Tumblr could be correct that Comscore's figures are not accounting for all its user engagement.

Tumblr has been a hot spot for animated GIFs as its traffic surged over the past few years. The Forbes story notes the GIFs and memes Tumblr blogs are known for can also be found elsewhere, such as on Buzzfeed and Upworthy. These GIFs are also now seen with growing frequency in mainstream online media sites and it is possible the Tumblr blogs are drawing less search traffic as a result. Tumblr also faces increased competition from Vine and Instagram, which both enable users to create short short videos.

Yahoo paid $1.1 billion to acquire Tumblr in May 2013.