Back in May, the Internet giant Yahoo announced that it’s going to acquire Tumblr, the personal blog service and social network for those who wish to share their pics, vids and texts with their friends and followers. Marissa Mayer, a 38-year-old CEO of Yahoo who defected from Google just around a year ago, claimed from the beginning that „Tumblr will continue to operate as a separate business” and that „their team, and tone will all remain the same”. And even the CEO of Tumblr, David Karp, the high school dropout and one of the trendsetters of the Internet, claimed as recently as last Thursday that „We’ve taken a pretty hard line on freedom of speech, supporting our users, creation, whatever that looks like, it’s just not something we want to police„. However, its policy did change – and drastically so – that same last Thursday.

The new policy seems very fair and balanced on the face of it: you can still create, post and do whatever you want, porn-related or not, on your Tumblr-powered blog. However, the moment you flag it „NSFW” (not safe for work) it gets excluded from most of the searches, and once you further flag it „Adult” (as in, possibly containing erotica or pornography) it’s completely excluded from any tag search or word search – not just on Tumblr, but on Google as well. This means that, effectively, 10% of Tumblr populace has just become completely invisible within the Internet as a whole – unless you like doing your searches via Bing or AliBaba. Otherwise, you only see the „naughty” bits of Tumblr if you already have a link to them, even with all the Internet search safeties off.

It seems that Yahoo is going the same way as Apple went as far as its „no porn” policy is concerned. Anwar Warner of Warner Digital, a consulting group for the Internet-related phenomena, says that „No one wants to be associated with porn,” and that „Not even brands that push the envelope want that type of association.” And Sara Norman, Yahoo’s spokesperson, claims that „Overall, the percentage of this [adult] content is small compared to peer companies,” with data backing her claim. In 2009, some independent researchers claimed that Tumblr’s main audience was coming to Tumblr for adult entertainment. More recent data from QuantCast, a traffic data aggregator service, suggest that the majority of Tumblr’s most popular sites are no longer labelled NSFW or adult at all, meaning the sea change came and went long before the recent developments.

Incidentally, Tumblr did alter its policy slightly even before selling to Yahoo – possibly as one of the provisos put forth by Mayer before agreeing to the USD 1.1 bln deal. The „Erotica” category has been bundled together with „Adult”, removing 12 million user sites from searches within Tumblr. The change – both the one before and after the takeover – is apparently by design and is aimed at protecting „the millions of readers and bloggers from different locations, cultures, and backgrounds with different points of view concerning mature or adult-oriented content.”

But is it just about morality and sensitivity or is there something more at play here? It’s not as clear-cut as just banning the celeb nip-slips sites or nude babes‚ galleries. The recent change to Tumblr’s iOS service mirrors the „no porn” approach and guidelines set by Apple. However, the way it has been made – that on the same day new category and search system was introduced – seems very heavy-handed, to say the least. Apparently, the new policy excludes tags #gay, #lesbian and #bisexual from its searches. Which is fine if you’re looking for same-sex porn, but what if you’re gay and looking for an ideal book to read or shopping ideas for your same-sex partner? You’re out of luck, then.

From business standpoint, Yahoo is still losing ground to the giants Google and Facebook in the online ad market – which is the chief way all the Internet companies earn their money these days. The porn-related decision can have an interesting impact here. On the one hand, it will allow to focus ads more, by removing the „XXX” ads from the mix, thus ensuring that those offended by them are not subjected to them at all. On the other hand, there’s an undeniable potential for ad revenue from the sexy ads, and in many corners of the Internet they seem to drown out all the other ads altogether. The 12% drop in marketers who paid for ads at Yahoo and their related sites last year may be completely unrelated but may also signal a need to refocus the way Y! ads are categorized.

Yahoo’s Tumblr deal is just one of many purchases it has made since 2012. Those began when Mayer came to power, and ever since then, the Sunnyvale Internet company had gone from strength to strength. Most of its success is owing to the investment in Yahoo Japan and AliBaba, the Chinese search giant. Selling part of its 40% share in AliBaba, Yahoo gained a massive USD 7.6 bln cash injection, which went towards recouping the share price losses and purchasing various online services and social networks like Tumblr. USD 3.6 bln was spent on just buying back outstanding shares of the company, thus reducing the overall amount of outstanding shares by at least 10%. Smaller volume of shares means greater share price and general boost to the way Yahoo’s stock is traded – and, indeed, that has been the case recently. In a three-month period from April to June, Y! has earned USD 331 mln from its shares, compared to USD 227 mln in April-June 2012. Times are good for Yahoo, with Marissa Mayer claiming that „We have created a new, supercharged Yahoo”.

Supercharging one of the most iconic and recognizable brands of the Internet has its clear disadvantages, though. In pursuit of making the brand more cool and fresh – by acquiring cool, new, hip services like Tumblr – some of this coolness and freshness is inevitably lost. According to International Business Times, most people chose Tumblr because of its image as a fashionable, open platform that used to be staunchly against censorship of any kind. With new policies implemented by Yahoo, this image will likely change, thus actually losing Tumblr’s key demographic and impacting Yahoo’s bottom line in the process.

Some even predict that Tumblr will go the way of Flickr and many other smaller social networks that were taken over by giants: the uniformity and desire to fit one set of rules in order to offend no-one comes with a heavy price – that of appealing to no-one, something which is a definite no-no for any successful Internet business these days. Let’s hope Tumblr doesn’t have to pay that price in the long run and stays fresh – and sexy.

VOCABULARY
to acquire – nabyć
pic – zdjęcie (pot.)
vid – film, video (pot.)
CEO (Chief Executive Officer) – dyrektor naczelny
to defect – zbiec, zdezerterować
to operate – działac, funkcjonować
to remain – pozostać
dropout – porzucający naukę
trendsetter – prekursor trendu, ktoś kto lansuje coś modnego
to take a hard line (approach) on sth – zająć twarde stanowisko w jakiejś sprawie
freedom of speech – wolność słowa
to police sth – nadzorować coś, pilnować czegoś
on the face of it – na pierwszy rzut oka
X-related – związany z X
X-powered – napędzany przez X
to flag – oflagować, oznaczyć etykietą
NSFW (not safe for work) – nie oglądać w pracy (ostrzeżenie o zawartości, która może być nieodpowiednia do rzeglądania w trakcie pracy)
adult – dorosły, tu: tylko dla dorosłych
to exclude from sth – wyłączać z czegoś
effectively – praktycznie rzecz biorąc
populace – populacja, mieszkańcy
invisible – niewidzialny
via – za pośrednictwem
naughty bits – nieprzyzwoite części (ciała)
safety – zabezpieczenie
as far as sth is concerned – jeśli o czymś mowa, zważywszy na coś
brand – marka
to push the envelope – przodować, stać na czele (postępu)
spokesperson – rzecznik
overall – ogólnie
content – zawartość, treść
compared to – w porównaniu do
peer – tu: równy, podobny
to back – wspierać
researcher – badacz
traffic – ruch (uliczny, internetowy)
aggregator – agregator, serwis zbierający dane z różnych witryn
majority – większość
sea change – całkowita odmiana
developments – wydarzenia
incidentally – nawiasem mówiąc
to alter – zmienić
proviso – zastrzeżenie, warunek konieczny
to bundle sth together with sth – tu: wrzucić coś do jednego worka
to remove – usunąć
takeover – przejęcie (spółki)
background – środowisko (pochodzenia)
concerning – odnośnie (do), co się tyczy
mature – dojrzały
sensitivity – wrażliwość
clear-cut – jasny i prosty, jednoznaczny
to ban – zakazać
celeb (celebrity) – gwiazda, sława
nip-slip – (pot.) zdjęcie lub wideo, w którym widać część piersi gwiazdy, najczęściej na skutek wypadku lub z nietypowego kąta widzenia
nude – nagi
babe – laska, ślicznotka
to mirror – odzwierciedlać
approach – podejście
guidelines – wytyczne
to introduce – wprowadzić, wdrożyć
heavy-handed – niezręczny, zbyt drastyczny
same-sex – tej samej płci
you’re out of luck – nie masz szczęścia, nie poszczęściło ci się
to lose ground to sb – zostawać dalej w tyle za kimś, być wyprzedzonym przez kogoś
ad (advertisement) – ogłoszenie
chief – główny
impact – wpływ
XXX – ogólnie o kategorii mediów zakazanych dla niepełnoletnich
to ensure – zapewnić
to offend – obrażać, urażać
to subject sb to sth – wystawiać kogoś na coś
undeniable – niezaprzeczalny
revenue – przychód, dochód
to drown sth out – zagłuszać coś
unrelated – niepowiązany
to refocus – zmienić fokus, ponownie wyregulować
purchase – nabytek
to go from strength to strength – osiągać coraz większe sukcesy
injection – zastrzyk
to recoup losses – odzyskać straty, odrobić stracone pieniądze
outstanding shares – niespłacone/zadłużone akcje, akcje bez pokrycia
volume – objętość
boost – czynnik pobudzający
supercharged – naładowany energią, doładowany
iconic – kultowy
recognizable – rozpoznawalny
disadvantage – wada, minus
pursuit – podążanie, pościg
hip – modny
inevitably – nieuchronnie
according to – zgodnie z, według
staunchly – stanowczo, zdecydowanie (jakiś/o jakichś poglądach)
censorship – cenzura
key demographic – najważniejsza warstwa demograficzna odbiorców produktu
bottom line – tu: bilans zysków
to predict – przewidywać
to go the way of X – pójść śladem X, pójść za przykładem X
uniformity – jednorodność
to appeal – być atrakcyjnym, pociągać

-by Prochor Aniszczuk

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