New York versus Silicon Valley, in tumblogging
[They’re] the two most prominent “tumblogging” sites, i.e. sites that make blogging more straightforward by making it easier to post media. …. But now Tumblr has been an Alexa Top 100 site for a while and is still growing strong. Meanwhile Posterous has about 4 times less uniques. Yet Posterous has everything to win: it’s a Y Combinator company with top-tier investors like Chris Sacca and Mitch Kapor. Its founders are experienced software engineers with computer science degrees from Stanford. How come it’s eating dust from a small startup started by a high school dropout?
The answer is as easy as it is counter-intuitive: Tumblr is a New York company and Posterous is a Silicon Valley company.
Or, to put it another way: Posterous is an engineered product, while Tumblr is a designed product.
Coasts aside, I truly adore Tumblr (this site runs on it). The more I use it, the more I discover. What I think I don’t understand doesn’t get in my way, then later find, what I didn’t understand, I can’t live without. That to me is great design and engineering, with a focus on people first. And New York does have the advantage of knowing people.
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