Cha-ching: marketing in a globalized virtual market

                                                 Image 1: Tumblr, Inc. (2013).

‘The era of globalization has been marked by dramatic increases in technology, trade and investment’ (Dicken, 2007). A movement apparent in the virtual networks like Tumblr. As the data above shows, at only six years old with a staggering amount of users, Tumblr understandably, in market terms at least, has over $112 million in investor funds (Rosenbaum, 2013). It appears dramatically increased profit is the resounding by-product in this globalization age of the internet.

Tumblr, Inc. ‘is a privately-held, venture capital backed media and entertainment company’. As the third industrial revolution has begun, the sale of Tumblr to Yahoo for $800 million this year (Rosenbaum, 2013) exemplifies the ‘number of remarkable technologies [that] are converging: clever software, novel materials [and] new processes’ (The Economist, 2012).  As Union Square Ventures, a foundation investor in Tumblr, Inc., partner Andy Weissman states  ‘the Internet... fundamentally alters [market] dynamics, by vastly increasing the number of distribution points as well as the number of content choices that an average person has’ (Weissman, 2013). I can hear the advertising companies counting the millions of dollars already. Cha-ching!

Hence, in terms of advertising, the internet has been termed ‘the ultimate marketing machine’ (The Economist, 2006). In my own experience, Tumblr is a welcome escape from the bombardment of advertisements of Facebook, being ‘ad-free’. Now with the financial backing of Yahoo, Tumblr can continue to remain so. This is a must as Yahoo needs Tumblr ‘to remain pure’ and keep it’s powerfully engaged, and curation capable use base happy (Rosenbaum, 2013). Seventeenth century political economist John Stuart Mill would have been pleased to see that the individual is being privileged over the group or multi-billion dollar software companies (Lecture). Thus, in the case of Tumblr, the rise of the virtual network has not created obvious winners or losers. Not yet, at least.  

  

APA Reference List:

Dicken, P. (2007). Winning and losing: An introduction, in Global Shift: Mapping the changing contours of the world economy (p 440). London, England: Sage.

The Economist. (2012). The third industrial revolution. Retrieved from

      http://www.economist.com/node/21553017

The Economist. (2006). The ultimate marketing machine. Retrieved from

      http://www.economist.com/node/7138905

Rosenbaum, S. (2013). 5 Reasons Tumblr + Yahoo Is Good For Users. Retrieved from

       http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenrosenbaum

Weissman, A. (2013). VHX. Retrieved from

       http://www.usv.com/2013/08/vhx.php

 Kuttainen, V. (2013). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 8: Stuff: Markets and Manufacture [Podcast]. Retrieved from               

       https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au

Image APA Reference List:

Tumblr, Inc. (2013). Sponsors. Retrieved from

         http://www.tumblr.com/sponsors