Marco Arment

Cofounder of Tumblr

• Born: June 11, 1982
• Place of Birth: Columbus, Ohio

Primary Company/Organization: Tumblr

Introduction

During two weeks in 2006, Marco Arment helped David Karp in the creation of the blogging platform Tumblr. By combining the best of online social networking and the Web 2.0 revolution, Arment and Karp were able to provide users with a simple platform for self-expression. Arment's work on Tumblr and his later projects, Instapaper and Overcast, reflect the developer's desire for efficiency in the Internet age.

Early Life

Marco Arment was born in Columbus, Ohio, on June 11, 1982. His mother Catherine lives in Bexley, Ohio. Arment attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He graduated in 2004 with an undergraduate degree in computer science. During his college career, Arment was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He was also a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). After graduation, Arment worked for Vivisimo in Pittsburgh as a developer. His friend and web design consultant David Karp asked him to help with a two-week project he was working on between paid jobs.

Life's Work

Karp was in between clients for his web design consultancy business, so he and Arment decided to work on creating a simple, clean Web 2.0 blogging platform for those interested in sharing ideas but not wanting to become professional bloggers. It took two weeks to create a beta version of Tumblr.

The name of the platform and subsequent company comes from the concept of the tumble log. A tumble log is a stream-of-consciousness microblog post. The idea of being able to produce web content without much work was growing as a moneymaking idea in the mid-2000s. Tumblr did not invent the tumble log (it was created by Christian Neukirchen on March 27, 2005), but Arment and Karp developed the concept. In doing so, they combined the short post of the social networking platform with the self-expression of the traditional blog post. The basic Tumblr tool was finished in October 2006 but would not go public until April 27, 2007.

It was not long before the site became a hit among computer professionals and bloggers. By the end of the first two weeks of public beta testing, Tumblr had attracted seventy-five thousand users. The Tumblr code was very pliable, allowing users to manipulate it to suit their needs. Unlike traditional blogging platforms, which require adherence to a set template, Tumblr allows users to change and reshape that template to personalize their space. Users can share content without having to establish an electronic relationship with other users, as is the case with traditional social networking sites.

The most notable difference between the Tumblr platform and the traditional blogging platform was the absence of the blank, white virtual paper of the text box. Instead, Arment and Karp decided to go with a few simple oversized buttons at the top of the user's home page that provided ease of posting, uploading, and pasting content from other bloggers. Tumblr thus provided a blogging platform for people who did not have the energy or time to devote themselves to a one of the preset themes provided by the free version of, say, a Wordpress.com blog. Arment and cocreator Karp wanted to provide efficiency for the busy person but at the same time share ideas and build an online community. Karp sees Tumblr users as an “engaged community.” Tumblr is not just a place to post a short blog and disappear. Tumblr allows users to share content and ideas, get to know folks with similar interests, and spend quality personal time on the computer.

The features of Tumblr are the main reasons for its ever-growing user base. Unlike many Web 2.0 platforms, Tumblr is specifically designed to make it easier for the layperson to produce web content. Being able to cut and paste another user's blog post with the click of a button (located on the user's dashboard), a feature added in May 2007, was the icing on the cake; Tumblr began to soar.

It was costing Karp and Arment $5,000 per month to keep the platform going, and they did not want to lose users by adding a price tag. In October 2008, Tumblr cofounder Karp raised capital for Tumblr by selling 25 percent of the company to venture capital firms. This provided development revenue that allowed Tumblr to remain a free service.

By January 2010, Tumblr hosted seven million individual blogs. As use of the website increased, so did the need for capital; the first sale simply was not enough. Cofounder Karp visited Silicon Valley several times to secure funding. He was successful, and the company was valued at around $100 million by the third year of its existence. Karp and Arment were clever about those from whom they accepted money, preferring to work with experienced, cyber-savvy individuals, including the former chief executive officer of Mozilla, the well-known Virgin owner Richard Branson. Their strategy paid off. Tumblr benefited from both advice and investment capital.

Trying to avoid user fees and viral advertising, Karp and Arment developed several design applications for Tumblr that users could buy at the Apple iStore and use on their Tumblr home pages. This made it possible to retain users but still make some revenue. Both Karp and Arment admit that their goal was not to create a hugely profitable online business but to give Internet users a space to grow a community and share their thoughts.

In a 2011 study, Tumblr was ranked among the fastest-growing blogging platforms on the web. It was also ranked least reliable, having the most downtime of any similar site. Some connect the unreliability of Tumblr with its massive user base. Nonetheless, Tumblr was valued at $800 million by September of 2011.

By then, Arment had announced his resignation from Tumblr (on September 21, 2010). He explained his reasons on his personal blog, Marco.org. It seems the rapid growth of Tumblr and the needs of the users meant the company needed a “technical manager,” a position that Arment did not feel qualified to hold. For four years, he acted as community manager and lead developer for Tumblr. As the site's popularity increased, Arment found himself moving away from what he really wanted to do. He decided instead to devote his time to his own project, known as Instapaper.

Instapaper began in late 2007 when Arment wanted to take items he saw online while at work and read them during his train commute to and from home. A train commute makes using a mobile device very difficult and browsing the Web impossible or extremely frustrating. Arment hated wasting time and wanted to transfer the material he should not be reading during the workday to the time when he had little or no Internet connection. Arment created one of the earliest smart-phone applications when he devised Instapaper. His app was accepted by the Apple store on the second official day because of an overload of application submissions on August 26, 2008.

Instapaper was created in a single day. Arment decided to keep it to himself for several months, using it daily and making minor improvements that allowed him to transfer data from his personal computer to his iPhone in a legible format. The improved app became the basis for the Instapaper software and platform. Arment posted a link to his blog so people could download the app for their own use a few months after the initial tweaking. It was an instant success.

Profitable since 2008, Instapaper and the idea of saving web content to peruse later proved popular, and many companies brought out their own version of Arment's iPhone application. Where Arment charged $5 for his application, his competition was providing the same service free of charge. Arment told a reporter that he needed to focus on growing his customer base and improving his product so people would still choose Instapaper over the free generic versions. By 2013, Instapaper had grown to the point that Arment did not feel capable of managing it, and it was acquired by Betaworks. In 2014, he launched the podcast application Overcast, to which he began devoting the majority of his time. The app reamined popular into the 2020s.

Personal Life

Arment married his wife, Tiffany Arment, in 2008. The couple welcomed a son in 2012.

Bibliography

Arment, Marco. “Instapaper Founder Marco Arment's Journey from Bagel Jockey to Publishing Pioneer.” Interview by Lydia Dishman. Fast Company 1 Nov. 2012. Web. 7 Aug 2012.

---. “Job Transition.” Marco.org. 21 Sept. 2010. Web. 12 Aug. 2012. Arment's unofficial resignation post regarding his decision to leave his position as lead developer at Tumblr and devote his time to his own product, Instapaper.

Boutin, Paul. “Tumblr Makes Blogging Blissfully Easy.” New York Times 13 Mar. 2009. Web. 7 Aug. 2012.

Cheshire, Tom. “Tumbling on Success: How Tumblr's David Karp Built a £500 Million Empire.” Wired 2 Feb. 2012: n. pag. Print.

Cranz, Alex. "One of the Best Podcasting Apps You Know Is Built by a Single Person." The Verge, 20 Mar. 2023, www.theverge.com/2023/3/20/23648650/marco-arment-overcast-solo-acts. Accessed 7 Mar. 2024.

Darlin, Damon. “Feel Free to Read This Later, on Your Phone.” New York Times 12 Dec. 2010. Web. 7 Aug. 2012.

Emerson, Ramona. “Tumblr Ranked ‘Least Reliable' Blogging Platform: Study.” Huffington Post. 19 Dec. 2011. Web. 8 Aug. 2012.

Karp, David. “Would You Take a Tumblr with This Man?” Interview by Doree Shafrir. New York Observer 15 Jan. 2008. Web. 7 Aug. 2012.

Tsotsis, Alexia. “Marco Arment Leaves Tumblr to Devote Himself to Instapaper.” TechCrunch Magazine 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 7 Aug. 2012.