Why Matt Mullenweg went to war over WordPress
10 months ago
- #OpenSource
- #WordPress
- #SocialMedia
- Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, discusses the company's 20-year journey, including its acquisitions like Beeper and Tumblr, and the future of WordPress and the web.
- Automattic's structure includes 'Ecosystem' (WordPress-related products) and 'Cosmos' (apps like Beeper and Tumblr), with recent organizational changes to centralize product engineering and design.
- The interview covers the legal dispute with WP Engine, where Mullenweg took aggressive actions against what he saw as free-riding on WordPress's open-source ecosystem, leading to backlash and internal buyouts.
- Mullenweg remains optimistic about the web as an application platform despite challenges in media distribution, citing traffic from AI-driven search engines and the resilience of open protocols like ActivityPub.
- Tumblr, acquired by Automattic, remains unprofitable but retains a loyal user base. Mullenweg discusses efforts to improve its usability and potential revenue models, including content licensing for AI training.
- The conversation touches on the future of interoperable social networking protocols (ActivityPub, AT Protocol, Matrix) and the importance of user experience over protocol-first thinking.