Mullenweg generally tends to downplay this authority, noting that customers can at all times fork WordPress and do their own thing, however there’s no question that where Mullenweg goes, the group — and the internet — follows. There’s an underlying development to a lot of Automattic’s recent acquisitions, a reflex to attempt to construct or purchase open alternatives to more and more closed systems. As social media falls increasingly under Facebook’s watch, Automattic buys Tumblr; as Spotify moves to regulate extra of the audio and podcast ecosystem, Automattic buys Pocket Casts. Parse.ly guarantees to be analytics minus the gross information practices; Day One promises top-notch encryption to maintain your essential recollections and journal entries personal eternally. Every Automattic product is each a wager on the longer term and a refined rebuke of the current.