Tumblr, Not Just for Hipsters Anymore

You didn't think Marissa Meyer and Yahoo bought Tumblr because it added some hipster credibility, did you? Oh no, Yahoo fully intends on turning a profit with the platform.

The Yahoo-owned blogging, errr, micro-blogging service announced yesterday that that it is soft launching a new ad unit called "Sponsored Trending Blogs" that puts advertisers Tumblr blogs in front of mobile users checking out the Explore tab in its iOS and Android Apps.

The ad offering is scheduled will make its official debut in early January 2014, but Tumblr users will start to notice promoted blogs from beta partners such as Turner Broadcasting, Delta, Twentieth Century Fox, Calvin Klein, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The Explore tab was previously used to showcase popular tags and a curated selection of blogs trending across the network in order to give users a convenient and quick way to see what others are tumbling each day.

The new advertising initiative, Tumblr's fifth product (and second exclusively for mobile), comes just six months after Yahoo purchased the network for $1.1 billion.