Tumblr announces 40 percent growth and a fancy new video player

You’ve heard of Pop-Up Video? Tumblr now has Pop-Out Video! I know that sounds like they’ve perfected an incredible 3D video player but no. . . .  What it really means is that you can pop the video out of any Tumblr stream so you can watch on a continuous loop while you skim your Tumblr feed. Instant second screen!

But that’s not all! Log on now and you can embed your Vine and Instagram videos absolutely FREE!

I know it looks like I made that cheesy graphic, but it’s actually a screengrab from the bizarre, intentionally (I hope) cheesy video Tumblr made to announce the new features. They do get points for a sense of humor, even their list of new features ends with a laugh. Good for them.

Tumblr has plenty of reasons to smile. On their recent investor call, Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said the company was on track to make $100 million next year. In 2012, the year before Yahoo acquired the site, Tumblr’s revenue was $13 million and they owe it all to an influx of users.

Tumblr’s user base has grown 40% in the past 15 months. They’re now sitting at 420 million users with 206 million registered blogs. What might be even better news is that visitors are hanging around longer than ever before; from 22 minutes to 28 minutes.

So where do they go from here? Tumblr is still a very specific network for a very specific type of user. There’s speculation that Mayer is angling to turn up the volume on videos to compete with YouTube. Video posts are growing twice as fast as the photo posts that are Tumblr’s claim to fame but then, video is growing everywhere. Technology has simply made it too easy to film, edit on the fly and upload. And since Tumblr’s audience is mostly young creatives – video is going to happen.

All this video talk is going to naturally lead to more video advertising. Tumblr runs only native ads so we’re not talking about pre-roll ads like you see on YouTube. If you want to promote your product on Tumblr, you have to make videos that blend in with the colorful, humorous, creative style that is the Tumblr trademark.

If you can do that, you’re golden.