Last month, Yahoo admitted that its blogging service Tumblr had failed to meet its goal of $100 million in revenue by 2015. The company has since acted to return Tumblr to shape – by rolling back a previous plan to integrate the separate sales teams of Yahoo and Tumblr, reports Business Insider.
It was in January 2015 that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer had given the go-ahead to this plan, which was reportedly unpopular with many Tumblr employees and slowed down the service’s growth. “The whole process just pulled the rug out of all momentum,” an ex-Tumblr employee revealed to Business Insider, adding that the move went ahead “without a full immersion plan.”
A Tumblr representative has now confirmed to the news site that the sales teams are being separated once again. The representative explained: “Since the acquisition, Tumblr has introduced a number of innovative ad products to maximize value for our advertisers and best meet their needs. To further support these efforts moving forward, we have returned to a dedicated direct sales team”.
At her company’s latest earnings call, Mayer pointed out intact strengths of Tumblr – including a user base of about 550 million, of which 80% are on mobile, a crucial growth area for Yahoo. She also cited Tumblr as one of her company’s three core platforms for the future.