Increasingly popular blogging service Tumblr on Tuesday launched its first advertising platform. Called simply “sponsors,” the new effort allows sponsors to put ads into the “Tumblr Radar” section, which shows up on the right side of every user’s main dashboard for accessing the site and cycles through the content that Tumblr’s administrators believe is most interesting. In addition, advertisers will also be able to put material in the “Tumblr Spotlight” section of the website, a separate page that also showcases Tumblr staff favorites and recommendations.
Tumblr is not revealing publicly at this time how much advertising on the website costs or what deals it is offering.
But the new advertising opportunites underline the site’s ambition to transform from a more freewheeling young startup into a more professional and revenue-generating company. They also have founder and CEO David Karp eating his words, as he formerly said that the website would never feature advertising.
