“What happened to Tumblr anyway?” – Is Medium the new Tumblr? I think Tumblr is a more
creative outlet visually whereas Medium, I think,
is more creative outlet in written form. Tumblr was bought by Yahoo, and any time you’re bought
by a very big media company, it’s going to slow down its innovation. They need to integrate
a still very big app. Go look in the Apple top charts. It’s still well entrenched in the top 100, top 125. So I think they’re totally different. I think they’re both very
viable communication platforms that matter in society. I have the benefit, personally, of being an investor in both. Early investor in Tumblr and in Medium. Big fan of both. We spent a lot of time, you and I, jamming in Medium. So, I don’t think it’s the new Tumblr. I think Tumblr’s still there. What happened to Tumblr? I think it’s a different
animal now, and I think, depending on how you want
to communicate to the world, for example, I think Tumblr
has been a tremendous anonymous platform for people where they don’t have to be themselves and they can have pseudo
names or pseudo context or hotsaucemaster.tumblr.com is a place where you don’t have
to be necessarily your name and you can communicate to the world, and I think that really
works for a lot of teenagers and a lot of youth. Medium, people tend to be
themselves on that platform and has been a gateway for them to be discovered as great
writers or interesting writers. So they’re different, and that’s my two cents
on those two platforms, and if you’re watching this
show or listening to the show, and you haven’t played with
either platform lately, I think one of the great
things about this show is not just listening or
watching or being entertained, is to take action. And so let’s do a little
homework assignment for episode, what are we, 143? What? – [India] Three.
– Yeah, 143. I challenge you, Vayner Nation, to go out and post three things on Tumblr, if you haven’t in years,
if you never have, and to write three articles on Medium if you haven’t in a
while or you never had. I think that, to me, is the energy as we get closer to episode
200 that I wanna start doing which is I want to
create more practitioners in the amount of people that
are listening and watching to this show right now that have never created content for either
platform is stunningly high, and I want to motivate
you, right this second, to go out and do it because
you will learn from it and it will make you stronger and better and that’s something I really
wanna do out of this show. Not just entertain.

“You don’t talk much about Tumblr. “Do you think it’s losing relevance?” – Yes. You keep asking quest– (laughs) Yes, I do think it’s losing relevance. I think Tumblr lost its moment, which is tough for me ’cause I was an early investor in Tumblr. I made a lot of money
when it sold to Yahoo! but it’s part of a bigger company that’s selling media in a traditional way even though it’s Yahoo! And I think that it lost to Instagram in the mobile translation much like many people did. It is still a very high
rated app in the app store, if you look in the top 100, it’s usually around number 90 to 110. But I do think it’s losing relevance. I think there’s a lot
of people that love it, it’s still a very big platform but I don’t say huge growth in it. I don’t see it. I think it’s a niche now, where a lot of creative
people are doing their thing, it’s a great creative outlet. A lot of people are doing
their anonymous work on it. But then Snapchat came along and kinda created a world– India, what’s going on behind me? – [India] Nothing, I was just waving to– (slaps table) – What, no, no, you were laughing before. – [India] No, I wasn’t. – Okay, I’ll have to watch
that part of the show. (laughs) I think, the show. I do think Tumblr’s lost its momentum and would need to have
some real innovation to get going again. Yes, I don’t talk about it a lot because it’s not atop of mind. And it’s a current show, right.

Which social media platform
that is currently an incumbent do you feel will be extinct in five years. In 2020, which social media platform that everybody’s invested in do you think will be extinct? – Thanks for the question, Ashton. So I think the two most
vulnerable platforms are Tumblr and Google Plus,
and I think that because they’re just owned by
big conglomerates, right. You know, for all my concerns
about where Twitter’s going, I feel like Dick Costolo and
team will figure that out and get better. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat
are really in a great spot. The two incumbents, Pinterest
I think is in a great spot. About to sneeze possibly, by the way, as I answer this question. The two incumbents that
I’m most worried about are Google Plus and Tumblr. Tumblr because it’s owned by Yahoo and all those politics
of being independent but still being within
a big holding company, and Google Plus because Google, this is a positive by the way. Google has shown me the enormous ability to cut bait if something’s not working, no matter how big it was. And I just have a funny feeling that they may just come out
in a year or two or three and just say, “We’re cutting it. “We may get back into
this game, we may not “but this execution is not working for us.” I actually am almost willing
to predict that may happen that I can see them
cutting Google Plus out, completely outright in the next 36 months. So those are two incumbents, Ashton, and I appreciate the question. Speaking of which, question of the day.