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Tumblr is funny but where is the money? If you are not a self-absorbed 13-year old girl or a lonely graphic artist obsessed with Japanese manga, you probably won't be familiar with Tumblr but it's worth a look-see to find out what $1.1-billion (U.S.) can buy in the virtual world.

Yahoo's boss, Marissa Mayer, who has agreed to pay that sum for Tumblr, says she won't "screw it up". Her remark was directed at Yahoo investors (who are right to be worried what she is doing with their cash) and the site's users, who have understandable fears that their beloved scrapbook is about to be sullied with advertisements for Nissan cars. But if Ms. Mayer is sincere about leaving in control David Karp, Tumblr's founder, I cannot see the point of buying this random collection of imagery, obsessions and confessions.

It's not that Tumblr's $13-million of income is inadequate, Of course, it is trifling; the mystery is whether Yahoo can multiply that sum tenfold during the next couple of years. In the fantasy fashion world of digital media, a pay back period of even seven years is probably too long. Ms. Mayer needs advertisers who are gagging to get their claws into the eyeballs of Tumblr users. And who are these tumbleweeds?

According to Quantcast, half of Tumblr's users are under 25 and two thirds have incomes under $50,000. Indeed, without your knowing it, Mr Karp has probably been finding his way into your childrens' bedrooms. Likewise, Ms. Mayer wants to find her way into your kids' piggy banks but there is a problem because the Tumblr wallet seems to be mostly pocket money and student loans. The Tumblr blogs tell their own tales; who else has the time to assemble an elegant collage of old photos and bad poetry, all lovingly presented against a tapestry made of self-portraits? These tumbleweeds mostly don't have jobs or busy lives.

The revenue answer provided by Tumblr's founder should worry Yahoo investors. Interviewed by Techcrunch, Mr. Karp said his view of advertising was different to Google and Facebook. He doesn't want advertisements to appear in the main stream pages in ways that would annoy users. He wants advertisers to use Tumblr to tell stories; an interesting idea but it probably means that the ads have to stand alne which is not where they want to be. Advertisers like to get right up close, in your face. All of which begs the question: what kind of product could you sell to these young, arty, self-adoring tumbleweeds. Perhaps music? But that's free already, isn't it?

There is one saving merit, if you can call it that, for Yahoo investors: the naughty bits. If you carry on trawling through Tumblr, you will almost certainly stumble on pornography. According to one survey of the site, 11 per cent of the blogs are adult content while more than a fifth of the incoming traffic on to Tumblr is referred from adult websites. This opens the door to some interesting advertising options but it may also tend to exclude others and could expose Yahoo to reputational risk. Indeed, Ms. Mayer makes jokey reference to the Yahoo-Tumblr dichotomy in her own Tumblr blog which features pictures of herself and David Karp with speech bubbles. Hers: "WFH." His: "NSFW."

Perhaps the right response is NSTI: Not Safe To Invest.

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