Tumblr is running ads on its mobile app for the first time, as the popular blogging platform is looks to boost revenues amid growing competition.
The move will see sponsored content made viewable on its mobile application, as it does on its web-based, non-mobile site.
Last year the company started letting advertisers pay for prominent placements of their content on its web-based site.
Regular users could also buy a place for their posts towards the top of followers’ dashboards to ensure they wouldn’t remain buried beneath a stack of newer entries.
However, as the number of users on Tumblr’s mobile app has been steadily on the rise, the company is now planning to make its ad-units viewable on smartphones and tablets too.
Speaking to Bloomberg, the company’s vice president Derek Gottfrid said that Tumblr has not yet embraced the traditional Internet advertising model; rather, it enables businesses expand the reach of their official blogs.
Launched more six years ago and counting more than 165 million users worldwide among its members, Tumblr has yet to make its first yearly profit. It now hopes that the decision to introduce sponsored content on its mobile app will help the company move towards finally raking in a profit in 2013.
