Popular microblogging platform Tumblr announced yesterday that it’s now serving ads on its iPhone and Android apps. This move comes a year after Tumblr initially allowed ads to appear on its Radar, allowing brand partners to place sponsored posts on its Web interface, and creating more than 120 million daily impressions, according to Tumblr.
These ads will now be arriving on your mobile Tumblr interface, bu they will look a little different; when looking at a sponsored post, you’ll be able to recognize it as such by an animated dollar sign which will appear on the top right corner of the post. Individual Tumblr app users should see no more than four of these a day, and if you really like them, you can like and reblog them as you would do with any post.
Tumblr’s CEO, David Karp, has been firmly opposed to advertising on the site since it was founded back in February of 2007. But it’s difficult to monetize an online social network without either requiring premium user fees or advertising. Tumblr featured its first advertising campaign in conjunction with Adidas, in June of 2012.
As of this month, Tumblr, headquartered in New York City, has over 104 million blogs, with 77.5 million daily blog posts. This huge user base raises the heads of advertisers and provides revenue for Tumblr and its 173 employees. In an interview with Bloomberg.com in March, head sales executive Lee Brown said that Tumblr expects to make the site profitable for the first time this year.
Initial advertisers in the mobile apps include ABC Entertainment, GE, Pepsi, and Warner Bros; the latter of which will be promoting its upcoming Summer films, The Great Gatsby and The Hangover Part III.
What do you think of Tumblr’s move to integrate ads?