Automattic to migrate over half a billion Tumblr blogs to WordPress backend

Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, has announced plans to migrate over half a billion Tumblr blogs to the WordPress back end. This strategic move aims to leverage WordPress.com's robust infrastructure and enable simultaneous feature deployment across both platforms. Automattic clarifies that the user experience on Tumblr will remain unchanged, stating: “We’re not talking about changing Tumblr. We’re not turning Tumblr into WordPress. […] We’re talking about running Tumblr’s backend on WordPress. You won’t even notice a difference from the outside.”

The migration will streamline cross-platform sharing and development, allowing features to be built once and implemented on both WordPress and Tumblr. Tumblr will benefit from the extensive open-source contributions to WordPress, while WordPress will gain from the innovative tools and creativity invested in Tumblr. Automattic emphasizes that this will be one of the largest technical migrations in internet history.