Tumblr officially shut down “Tips,” an opt-in feature where creators could receive one-time payments from their followers.
As of today, the tipping icon has automatically disappeared from all posts and blogs with the feature enabled. Creators that use the feature should note that June 15 is the last day they can withdraw money they received from tipping.
The reason for shutting down the feature is simple: it failed to gain traction. According to a post written by the company last month, “Tipping hasn’t seen the usage we’d hoped for.” Additionally, it has been Tumblr’s plan since last year’s reorg to put an end to things that aren’t performing well.
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“While this will affect a very small number of you, we know that those of you who do Tip do so with great admiration for your Tumblr peers, and we’re sorry to be taking this away from you,” the company added.
In 2022, Tumblr introduced Tips as a complementary feature to Post+, its subscription offering that allowed creators to put content behind a paywall. However, Post+ was discontinued last year due to user backlash. It seems that users were tired of their favorite platform trying to make money from them, so it’s not surprising that the platform’s attempt to use Tips didn’t work out.
In terms of other monetization features, Tumblr still has its Supporter badge, which costs $2.99/month or $29.99/year and can be displayed on their blog like any other badge. The company explained on its website that the supporter badge will appear “shiner and shiner” as time goes on and the user continues to support the platform.