After banning porn on its platform, Tumblr users started to leave. This resulted in a hard hit in engagement and traffic for the company. Tumblr’s traffic fell from 521 million views in December 2018 to 437 million in January 2019 and down to 369 million in February 2019, per figures from Similarweb. The platform claimed the moral high-ground, deciding to ban porn entirely from its website after child abuse images surfaced.
Tumblr has been a popular platform for porn enthusiasts and erotic artists that want to share adult content. In November 2018, Tumblr’s iOS app was pulled from the Apple App Store after evidence surfaced of child pornography being on the platform. This caused an outrage against Tumblr. Not long after, Tumblr decided to ban adult content beginning December 17, 2108.
Is Tumblr Slowly Recovering?
According to data we retrieved from Similarweb, Tumblr’s March 2019 traffic increase from its dip in February 2019. The platforms traffic in March is 394.5 million, up from 369.6 million in February. If you look at where the traffic leads, there has been a 12 percent increase in traffic going to Instagram. Tumblr users could potentially be moving or sharing their pictures on Tumblr that link to Instagram. Nonetheless, Tumblr made a small recovery in March 2019 traffic wise, so it is an upside for the company because they experienced a huge dip in traffic from December 2018.
When Tumblr decided to ban porn entirely from its platform, there was a huge outrage from erotic artists and sex workers, so much so that it required a response from Tumblr’s CEO Jeff D’Onofrio:
“We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves,” Tumblr’s CEO Jeff D’Onofrio said at the time.
There was a huge concern among the LGBTQ+ community because of this ban. Tumblr said: “We fully recognize Tumblr’s special obligation to these communities and are committed to ensuring that our new policy on adult content does not silence the vital conversations that take place here every day.”
Responding to the drop in traffic, a Tumblr spokesperson said: “We made a strategic decision for the business that better positions it for long-term growth among more types of users. This was the right decision.”
