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Automattic's marketing problem highlighted by industry veteran

Dave Winer points to Automattic's pattern of building great products but failing to promote them effectively.

Luis Rijo

• 6 min read
Developer coding Automattic products while potential users remain unaware in background, illustrating marketing gap.
Developer coding Automattic products while potential users remain unaware in background, illustrating marketing gap.

Industry veteran Dave Winer highlighted a persistent pattern within Automattic Inc. on July 13, 2025, pointing to the company's tendency to develop exceptional products while failing to communicate their value to potential users. According to Winer's blog post on Scripting News, this marketing disconnect represents a significant missed opportunity for the WordPress parent company, particularly regarding integrations that could reshape social media landscapes.

"Automattic tends to do this, develop crazy excellent stuff and then proceed to never talk about it," Winer wrote in his analysis published Sunday. The observation came as part of broader commentary about Automattic's approach to product promotion, which Winer described as fundamentally flawed despite the company's technical achievements.

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Summary

Who: Dave Winer, veteran blogger and technology industry observer, published analysis of Automattic Inc.'s marketing approach while Matt Mullenweg, Automattic CEO, acknowledged the criticism.

What: Winer exposed Automattic's pattern of developing advanced technology, particularly the WordPress-Mastodon integration, while failing to effectively promote these capabilities to potential users and competitors.

When: The analysis was published on July 13, 2025, with Mullenweg's response posted at 7:20 PM the same day on social media platforms.

Where: The criticism appeared on Winer's Scripting News blog, with responses occurring across social media platforms and implications affecting the broader WordPress ecosystem and digital marketing community.

Why: Winer highlighted this pattern to address missed opportunities in social media publishing and content distribution, particularly as traditional platforms face user migration toward decentralized alternatives like Mastodon and Bluesky.

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Winer specifically highlighted the WordPress-Mastodon connection as what he termed "the world's best kept secret." This integration, which enables seamless publishing between WordPress sites and the decentralized social network Mastodon, represents a potentially transformative feature that has received minimal promotion from Automattic. The technology allows WordPress users to automatically cross-post content to Mastodon, creating opportunities for wider content distribution across emerging social platforms.

The technical implementation of the WordPress-Mastodon integration involves API connections that automatically syndicate WordPress posts to Mastodon instances. This functionality emerged as part of Automattic's broader strategy to integrate WordPress with alternative social media platforms, responding to growing interest in decentralized social networks following changes at major platforms like Twitter.

Matt Mullenweg, Automattic's CEO, acknowledged Winer's criticism in a social media response posted at 7:20 PM on July 13, 2025. "Hah! Guilty as charged though we're working on it!" Mullenweg replied, suggesting the company recognizes its marketing shortcomings. His response included a directive to "Keep an eye on @beeper this weekend," indicating potential developments for the universal messaging platform acquired by Automattic.

Beeper, which Automattic acquired in April 2024, represents another example of the company's pattern of developing advanced technology with limited marketing visibility. The universal chat application supports over 10 different messaging networks, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Twitter/X, Google Messages, Telegram, Signal, Matrix, Slack, Google Chat, Discord, and LinkedIn. Despite these comprehensive capabilities, Beeper has maintained a relatively low profile in mainstream marketing discussions.

The marketing challenge extends beyond individual products to Automattic's entire ecosystem approach. Automattic's ambitious plan to run Tumblr on WordPress backend demonstrates the company's technical capabilities in handling massive migrations involving over half a billion blogs. However, these achievements often receive limited promotion compared to their technical significance.

Recent developments within Automattic have highlighted the complexity of the company's marketing position. Automattic: 8.4% staff cut amid escalating WordPress legal battles illustrates how legal challenges with hosting providers have consumed significant attention that might otherwise focus on product promotion. The company implemented workforce restructuring through its "Alignment Offer" program, resulting in 159 employee departures amid ongoing trademark disputes.

WordPress co-founder's criticism of WP Engine leads to legal confrontation further demonstrates how Automattic's leadership attention has been diverted toward ecosystem governance rather than marketing innovation. These disputes, while important for maintaining WordPress's open-source integrity, may contribute to reduced focus on promoting technical achievements.

Winer's analysis draws parallels to historical technology promotion patterns, referencing his own experience with system-level scripting for Mac computers in the early 1990s. He noted that companies often listen to competitors rather than friends when evaluating feature adoption. "People don't listen to their friends, they listen to their competitors," Winer observed, suggesting this dynamic might explain why Automattic's innovations remain underutilized.

The WordPress-Mastodon connection specifically addresses growing demand for alternative social media publishing strategies. As traditional platforms implement algorithm changes and content restrictions, the ability to simultaneously publish to decentralized networks provides content creators with greater distribution flexibility. However, Winer suggested that without proper promotion, this capability fails to drive adoption across competing platforms like Bluesky and Threads.

Marketing professionals within the WordPress ecosystem have observed similar patterns regarding Automattic's communication strategies. WP Fusion developer wins trademark dispute with Automattic over plugin use highlights how even trademark enforcement activities receive more attention than technical innovation announcements.

Industry observers note that Automattic's marketing challenges extend to broader ecosystem communication. Despite WordPress powering approximately 43% of websites globally, many users remain unaware of advanced features available through Automattic's various platforms and integrations.

Technical documentation for the WordPress-Mastodon integration reveals sophisticated implementation details that enable automatic post syndication, custom formatting preservation, and selective content distribution. These capabilities support complex publishing workflows that could benefit marketing professionals managing multi-platform content strategies. However, awareness of these features remains limited among target audiences.

Winer emphasized that effective promotion requires understanding competitive dynamics within technology adoption cycles. His analysis suggested that individual developers and small companies often struggle with self-promotion, preferring to focus on product development rather than marketing communication. This pattern appears consistent with Automattic's historical approach to product launches and feature announcements.

The Beeper platform exemplifies this challenge, offering unified messaging capabilities that could streamline business communication workflows. Features include cross-platform message synchronization, unified notification management, and support for both personal and business messaging networks. Despite these capabilities, Beeper maintains minimal market visibility compared to established messaging platforms.

Recent trademark disputes have further complicated Automattic's marketing environment. Advanced Custom Fields plugin at center of WordPress trademark dispute demonstrates how legal activities can overshadow technical achievements, creating negative attention that may impact product promotion strategies.

Community response to Winer's observations indicates widespread recognition of Automattic's marketing patterns. Robert Jacobi, commenting on Mullenweg's social media response, noted excitement about upcoming Beeper announcements scheduled for Wednesday in New York City. His comment suggested that Automattic may be developing more integrated approaches to product promotion across its ecosystem.

The marketing implications extend beyond individual product awareness to broader strategic positioning within competitive technology markets. Automattic's diverse portfolio includes WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Tumblr, Beeper, and various developer tools, creating opportunities for comprehensive platform marketing that remains largely unexploited.

Winer's analysis specifically highlighted the missed opportunity surrounding writer empowerment through web technologies. He noted that writers were "once empowered by the web, and that ended with Twitter. Now it's coming back." This observation suggests that Automattic's WordPress-Mastodon integration could address significant market needs if properly promoted to content creators and publishers.

For marketing professionals, Automattic's pattern represents both a cautionary tale and an opportunity. Companies developing innovative technology must balance technical excellence with effective communication strategies to achieve market impact. Winer's observation that "it doesn't do any good if people don't know it's there" underscores the critical importance of marketing communication in technology adoption.

The timing of Winer's analysis coincides with growing interest in alternative social media platforms and decentralized publishing strategies. Marketing professionals increasingly seek tools that enable multi-platform content distribution while maintaining control over audience relationships. Automattic's existing capabilities could address these needs if properly promoted and positioned.

Looking ahead, Mullenweg's acknowledgment of the marketing challenge suggests potential changes in Automattic's communication approach. The reference to upcoming Beeper developments indicates the company may be preparing more coordinated product announcements that could improve visibility for its technical achievements.

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