Many predicted that going T&A free would lead to the platform's demise, and a report from March confirmed that they'd been correct: the platform's traffic had dropped nearly 30% since the ban — that's 150 million fewer visitors, according to SimilarWeb. Other companies, among them "adult social microblogging" site Youllo, encouraged Tumblr refugees to migrate to their platform. But now, trashy Tumblr content creators might not have to.
Pornhub Vice President Corey Price told BuzzFeed his company was extremely interested in buying the platform. Pornhub had initially invited kinky Tumblr viewers and creators to migrate to its sex-centered site. Now, the free and paid pornography purveyor could just pick up the whole platform.
— Pornhub ARIA (@Pornhub) December 4, 2018
"There are obvious synergies between the two brands and value Pornhub could derive from Tumblr," Price told the outlet. "We're extremely interested in acquiring the platform and are very much looking forward to one day restoring it to its former glory with NSFW content."
He noted that Tumblr had been a "safe haven" for those wanting to "explore and express their sexuality" and said Pornhub was "dismayed that such measures were taken to eradicate erotic communities on the platform, leaving many individuals without an asylum through which they could comfortably peruse adult content."
Tumblr was launched in early 2007 by David Karp. The company saw its first major paid advertising campaign in 2012 with Adidas, and the next year Yahoo bought the platform for $1 billion — a roll of the dice that didn't really pan out, as Yahoo ended up writing down half the platform's value before Verizon bought Yahoo in 2017.
