9781422287224

T umblr ® : How David Karp Changed the Way We Blog

WIZARDS of TECHNOLOGY

Amazon ® : How Jeff Bezos Built the World’s Largest Online Store Disney’s Pixar ® : How Steve Jobs Changed Hollywood Facebook ® : How Mark Zuckerberg Connected More Than a Billion Friends Google ® : How Larry Page & Sergey Brin Changed the Way We Search the Web Instagram ® : How Kevin Systrom & Mike Krieger Changed the Way We Take and Share Photos Netflix ® : How Reed Hastings Changed the Way We Watch Movies & TV Pinterest ® : How Ben Silbermann & Evan Sharp Changed the Way We Share What We Love Tumblr ® : How David Karp Changed the Way We Blog Twitter ® : How Jack Dorsey Changed the Way We Communicate YouTube ® : How Steve Chen Changed the Way We Watch Videos

WIZARDS of TECHNOLOGY

T umblr ® :

How David Karp Changed the Way We Blog

AURELIA JACKSON

Mason Crest

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com

Copyright © 2015 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

First printing 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3178-4 ISBN: 978-1-4222-3186-9 ebook ISBN: 978-1-4222-8722-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jackson, Aurelia. Tumblr : how David Karp changed the way we blog / Aurelia Jackson. pages cm. — (Wizards of technology) ISBN 978-1-4222-3186-9 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-4222-3178-4 (series) — ISBN 978-1-4222-8722-4 (ebook) 1. Karp, David, 1986- 2. Karp, David, 1986-—Juve- nile literature. 3. Webmasters—United States—Biography—Juvenile literature. 4. Computer programmers—United States--Biography—Juvenile literature. 5. Tumblr (Electronic resource)—Juvenile literature. 6. Blogs—Juvenile literature. I. Title. TK5102.56.K37J33 2015 338.7’61006752092—dc23 [B] 2014012232

CONTENTS

1. Starting Strong

7

2. Listening to the Users

21 33 47 58 60 62 64

3. Keeping Up

4. The Future of Tumblr

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Series Glossary of Key Terms

Index

About the Author and Picture Credits

Words to Understand technology: Things that people invent to make something easier to to do something new. specialized: Got very good at one particular thing. animation: The technique of combining still images to create the illusion of movement. mentor: An advisor or guide, especially one with more experience. expertise: Expert skill or knowledge in a certain area.

CHAPTER ONE

Starting Strong

D avid Karp came up with a great idea before he was even twenty years old. He became successful by inventing something that would improve the lives of others. He felt the Internet was miss- ing something, and he decided to fill that gap with a type of blog that would change the way everyday people used the Internet forever. David is very young compared to most successful businessmen, but he’s already earned a fortune. In fact, he is worth an estimated two hundred million dollars! David’s invention, named Tumblr, was officially released to the public in 2007. Many users were instantly hooked, and it was easy to see why.

8

TUMBLR

Today, Yahoo! owns Tumblr, but David hasn’t given up control of his company to the Internet giant.

9

Star t ing Strong

David had worked hard to make a website that was easy to use while also allowing members to be creative. Users could upload text comments, photos, videos, or even voice clips to their own personal webpage with- out knowing anything about computer programming. To top it all, Tumblr was entirely free to use and ad-free! Two weeks after Tumblr launched, the website had 75,000 members. After six years, the website had gained over one hundred million users with over sixty billion blog posts. Tumblr continues to grow. Tumblr, Inc. had started out as a project between David Karp and Marco Arment, but now the website employs over two hundred people. David decided to sell Tumblr in 2013 for several reasons. One of the biggest reasons was that he needed more money to keep Tumblr running. It was impossible for David to keep up with Tumblr’s enormous growth and popularity on his own. He sold the company to an even larger com- pany called Yahoo. This company paid David over one billion dollars for the ownership of Tumblr. He will be able to keep his title as the CEO of Tumblr for as long as he wants to, according to Yahoo. The purchase was made final on June 20, 2013. As part of the deal, David was asked to stay with the company as the chief executive office (CEO). This ensured that Tumblr would continue to develop in a way that David had imagined. His creative ideas would continue to inspire and change Tumblr for the better in the many years to come. Tumblr was about six years old when ownership changed hands. Six years may not seem like very long, but it can feel like a lifetime when it comes to the Internet. Tumblr has changed a lot since it first began, and it still continues to change today. David does not let the changes in technology slow down his web- site. As technology improves, so do the availability and many features of Tumblr. When Tumblr was first invented, for example, users could only upload posts using personal computers. Today, users can upload posts using their smartphones or tablets.

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TUMBLR

Learning how to code and create websites at an early age helped David create Tumblr later in life.

11

Star t ing Strong

David has a lot of money, but he lives very simply. He does not own a lot of expensive clothes and does not use his money for selfish reasons. He has a sofa and one television in his apartment, which is located in Brooklyn, New York. Staying humble is very important to David because he originally developed Tumblr for everyday people. MAKING WEBSITES When computers were first invented, they were very large and extremely expensive. Only the richest members of society could buy computers to call their own. All that changed around the time David Karp was born, in 1986. Computers were becoming more common both at work and at home. Some public schools even began purchasing computers for their students to use. The personal computer is a very powerful tool. One of its most im- portant functions in the twenty-first century is browsing the Internet. The Internet, like all inventions, began as a very small experiment. The World Wide Web was first made available to the public in the early 1990s. It started with just a few simple websites and has been expanding rapidly ever since. Society has learned to rely on the Internet in many ways. The Internet can be used to research a paper, reach out to friends, or even share ideas with the entire world. Growing up, David was always fascinated with the Internet. Merely visiting his favorite websites was not enough for someone as clever as David, though. He wanted to make his own websites for the world to see. Back in the 1990s, there were no programs to build a website for you like the ones that exist today. It was very difficult to make a website without programming it yourself. Computer programmers use strings of code to tell a computer what to do. Computer languages are made up of these strings of code. Learning how to make a website is a lot like learning how to speak any other new language. There are many different types of computer languages. Some

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TUMBLR

are used to make programs. Others are used to build websites. The most basic computer language used to build a website is known as HTML. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language. Programmers use HTML code to tell a computer what to display on a website. For example, a web developer can use a special HTML command to change the color of the text shown on a website. Another command can change the background color of the page. The possibilities are endless when it comes to HTML. David began teaching himself how to use HTML when he was eleven years old. Books and websites were a very helpful part of his research. Along with learning came experimentation. David tried his hand at build- ing websites and realized he liked it a lot. He was creating websites of his very own before he could drive! At the time, David was attending classes at the Calhoun School. His mother worked there as a science teacher and encouraged his interest in technology. David was a good student, but he was far more interested in his own projects than what he learned at school. As David grew older, he knew he wanted to use his skills to become an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is a person who starts his own busi- ness. David’s first business venture, he decided, would be creating web- sites for small businesses. But in the meantime, he had a lot to learn. HIS OWN BUSINESS David took an internship job at the age of fourteen. An intern is someone who works for very little pay, or even for free, in order to learn a job. One of the companies David worked with was Frederator Studios, which specialized in animation . The founder of the company, Fred Seibert, was a friend of David’s family, and he became a mentor to David. He taught David a lot about computer animation and web development while David worked at the company. David used his time at Frederator Studios to soak up all the knowledge he could from older, more experienced programmers and engineers. The

13

Star t ing Strong

employees of Frederator Studios were so impressed with David that they were part of the reason David landed his first real job. When a growing Internet forum needed help, one of David’s coworkers recommended him for the job. An Internet forum is a website where people can go to talk to one another through a string of messages known as threads. There are many different types of forums on the World Wide Web. David was asked to help develop a parenting forum named UrbanBaby. Mothers who lived in the city would visit the site to communicate with other urban mothers. David finished his first project for UrbanBaby in just a few short hours. The owners of the forum were so impressed that they hired him as a per- manent employee not long after. David had been living in New York with his family, but he spent some time in Japan while he was working for UrbanBaby. None of his cowork- ers knew he was in Japan or even that he was only seventeen years old until long after he moved there. They were extremely surprised when they found out David’s real location and age. David worked for UrbanBaby until 2006. He left when it was sold to a much larger company. David saw leaving UrbanBaby as an opportunity to strike out on his own. He had earned a lot of money while he was working for the com- pany, and now he was ready to use this money to start up his very own software consultancy company. A consultant is someone who is hired on a case-by-case basis to answer questions and solve problems for clients. David’s company spent a lot of his time altering software to fit a client’s needs. The company David started became known as Davidville. David’s company took off during its first year. At the time, David was extremely embarrassed by his age. He thought clients would not take him seriously if they knew how young he was, so he spoke to most of his clients over the phone and tried to avoid meeting them in person. He lied about his age and time in the industry during phone interviews, always saying that he was older and more experienced than he actually was.

14

TUMBLR

When David created and launched Tumblr, he was still a young man in his early twenties.