Automattic CEO calls Tumblr his ‘biggest failure’ so far

Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, has labeled the acquisition of Tumblr as his most significant failure to date, although he remains optimistic about its potential. Speaking at the recent WordCamp Canada 2025 conference, Mullenweg engaged with the WordPress community during a live Town Hall session, where he addressed the challenges facing Tumblr. He revealed that Tumblr operates on a different technical framework than WordPress, which he originally planned to unify by migrating its backend. However, this ambitious project was postponed earlier this year due to the substantial costs involved in transitioning Tumblr's vast repository of over 500 million blogs. Currently, Tumblr is not profitable and relies on the revenue generated by other Automattic products. Despite efforts to reduce expenses through layoffs and reallocating resources, Mullenweg acknowledged that these strategies have not yielded the desired results. "I need to switch Tumblr over to WordPress, but it’s a big lift. It’s over 500 million blogs, actually, and, as a business, it’s costing so much more to run than it generates in revenue," he stated. To make Tumblr sustainable, Automattic has had to focus on other projects, with Mullenweg admitting, "It’s probably my biggest failure or missed opportunity right now, but we’re still working on it." Transitioning Tumblr to the WordPress backend would not only streamline maintenance but also help integrate it into the broader open social web, known as the fediverse, which was one of the migration’s intended benefits. During the session, Mullenweg also discussed various initiatives at Automattic, including advancements in WordPress, Jetpack, and WooCommerce. One notable project is Playground, which allows users to run WordPress entirely in a web browser. He also mentioned the growth of Beeper, Automattic's universal messaging app, which will soon support additional messaging platforms. On the topic of artificial intelligence, Mullenweg expressed a forward-thinking approach, stating, "We’re not putting the genie back in the bottle," and referred to companies like OpenAI as "too big to fail." In addressing the WordPress theme directory, he proposed tagging AI-generated images to facilitate better search filtering, rather than dismissing AI-created themes altogether. Mullenweg also tackled the ongoing legal issues with WP Engine, a WordPress hosting provider, criticizing their business practices that profit from the open-source ecosystem without adequate contributions in return. He emphasized the importance of fostering positive community behavior, suggesting that Automattic implement incentives for contributions, such as higher rankings in the WordPress directory. He encouraged the community to support ethical businesses, highlighting a site called WordPressEngineTracker.com that tracks hosting migrations within the ecosystem. Mullenweg noted that nearly 100,000 sites have switched hosts, with a significant number going offline since last September. He concluded by condemning attempts to suppress transparency and free speech in the community, reflecting on the importance of accountability in the open-source world.