In a remarkable convergence of tradition and technology, the 2024 State of the Word event was held in Tokyo, Japan. This annual gathering brought together WordPress enthusiasts from all over the globe, with hundreds attending in person and millions more joining the event online. For the first time, the event was hosted in Asia, highlighting the platform’s expanding global influence. Tokyo, a city where ancient traditions blend seamlessly with cutting-edge technology, served as the perfect backdrop for this significant occasion.
The Fusion of Tradition and Innovation
Matt Mullenweg, the co-founder of WordPress, encapsulated the spirit of Tokyo with his words: "Tokyo is a city you feel." This sentiment resonates with how WordPress itself has evolved, blending legacy systems with innovative advancements to create a platform that feels both familiar and new. At the heart of this evolution is the concept of kansei engineering, a Japanese design philosophy that emphasizes creating experiences that transcend mere functionality and aesthetics, focusing instead on how they feel to the user. This approach has quietly guided WordPress’s development, ensuring the platform delivers an experience that resonates deeply and intuitively with its users.
Japan’s Pioneering Role in WordPress’s Global Journey
The event also celebrated Japan’s significant contribution to the global WordPress community. Nearly 21 years ago, Japan became the first country to localize WordPress, paving the way for its evolution into a truly global platform. This initiative began with a simple forum post by a user named Otsukare, igniting a translation project that would eventually grow into a worldwide movement. The growth of the Japanese WordPress community serves as a testament to the power of shared goals and collaborative spirit.
Japan also gave birth to Wapuu, WordPress’s beloved mascot. This character, originally created as a fun and approachable representation of WordPress, has since been adopted and adapted by WordPress communities worldwide, each version reflecting local cultures and aesthetics. Wapuu’s journey from a simple concept to a global phenomenon illustrates the collaborative nature of the WordPress community.
WordPress’s Growth and Achievements in 2024
At the event, Matt Mullenweg shared several key milestones that highlighted WordPress’s growth and resilience over the past year. WordPress now powers 43.6% of all websites globally, with a commanding 62.3% share of the content management system (CMS) market. In Japan, WordPress’s dominance is even more pronounced, powering 58.5% of websites and holding an 83% CMS market share. These figures underscore Japan’s deep-rooted commitment to WordPress and highlight the substantial contributions of its developers.
Globally, WordPress’s multilingual ecosystem continues to expand. By 2025, it is expected that websites using languages other than English will surpass those in English. German recently overtook Japanese as the third-most-used language on WordPress, with emerging languages like Farsi gaining rapid adoption. In Southeast Asia, languages such as Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Thai have seen significant year-over-year growth, indicating broader adoption across diverse regions.
The platform’s core downloads have surged to nearly half a billion annually, with the successful releases of WordPress versions 6.5, 6.6, and 6.7. The design and development ecosystem has also thrived, with over 1,700 new themes introduced in 2024, reflecting a growing interest in modern, flexible site design.
The plugin ecosystem has experienced remarkable activity, with downloads nearing 2.35 billion, marking a 20% increase from the previous year. Plugin updates have exceeded 3 billion and are on track to surpass 3.5 billion by year’s end. The Plugin Review Team has implemented transformative improvements, drastically reducing the average review wait time. The introduction of the Plugin Check tool has further streamlined the process, reducing submission issues by 41% and enabling the team to approve 138% more plugins each week.
Advancing WordPress’s Capabilities
Matías Ventura, WordPress’s lead architect, showcased the platform’s evolution through writing, design, building, and development. The writing experience has been enhanced with an improved distraction-free mode, allowing users to focus on content creation. An experimental feature, block-level comments, promises to reshape collaborative workflows by enabling teams to leave notes directly on blocks.
Design enhancements include the introduction of the Twenty Twenty-Five theme and over 1,000 block themes, offering tailored starting points for various site types. The improved Style Book provides a comprehensive view of a site’s appearance, ensuring a smooth design process. The design approach is systematic, with blocks forming patterns, patterns forming templates, and templates separating content from presentation.
WordPress’s content management capabilities have been bolstered by the introduction of Block Bindings, which merge the flexibility of blocks with the structured power of meta fields. This feature allows block attributes to be directly linked to data sources like post meta, reducing the need for custom blocks while creating deeper, more dynamic content relationships.
The development landscape has been enriched with new tools like the Templates API, simplifying the process of registering and managing custom templates. The Interactivity API enables fast, seamless website experiences by allowing server-rendered interactivity within WordPress. This technology bridges the gap between developers and content creators, ensuring a cohesive experience within the WordPress ecosystem.
Embracing an AI Future
Matt Mullenweg emphasized that Gutenberg’s evolution is paving the way for AI-powered site building, while keeping creative control in users’ hands. A recent speed building challenge on WordPress’s YouTube channel demonstrated this potential, with AI-assisted tools enhancing creativity and efficiency without replacing developers.
Community Impact and Global Reach
Mary Hubbard, WordPress’s Executive Director, highlighted the platform’s commitment to its open-source mission and the power of its global community. She reaffirmed WordPress’s principles of clarity, trust, and open-source integrity, ensuring its long-term sustainability and success.
In 2024, WordPress’s global influence has surged through educational programs, developer contributions, and grassroots initiatives. The platform’s social media following has grown to 2.3 million, with events like WordCamps attracting millions of attendees and viewers worldwide.
The Learn WordPress platform introduced Structured Learning Pathways, offering tailored tracks for beginners and developers. Grassroots programs, such as WP Campus Connect in India and innovation competitions in Uganda, have empowered young creators and fostered a network of over 150 active members in Latin America.
Japanese Community Highlights
Junko Fukui Nukaga, a Community Team representative, noted that WordPress’s prominence in Japan contributes to an economy estimated to exceed 100 billion yen. The Japanese WordPress community celebrated DigitalCube’s IPO on the Tokyo PRO Market, marking a milestone for the local ecosystem. Major contributors like Takayuki Miyoshi’s Contact Form 7 plugin have surpassed 10 million active users, while companies like Sakura Internet and XServer have built specialized WordPress infrastructure.
Community events in Japan have flourished, with 189 local meetups held throughout the year. Translation Night gatherings have ensured WordPress remains accessible to Japanese users, reflecting a thriving collaborative spirit.
Data Liberation and Future Prospects
Reflecting on the progress since last year’s initiative launch, WordPress aims to embody freedom in its deepest sense — the freedom to move content anywhere, collaborate without limits, and create without constraints. This vision extends to a broader web where content flows seamlessly across platforms, enabling unrestricted creativity and innovation.
A notable demonstration showed how easily ePub files can be imported into a WordPress site, integrating seamlessly with existing designs. This represents the initiative’s broader goal of making content migration and integration effortless.
Q&A and Panel Discussions
The event concluded with a Q&A session, where Matt Mullenweg addressed questions from the audience about the future of blogging, WordPress performance, and the impact of AI search. Panel discussions with industry leaders and creators explored the transformative power of open-source publishing and WordPress’s growth in Japan and beyond.
Closing Remarks
The 2024 State of the Word event in Tokyo was a celebration of WordPress’s achievements, its vibrant global community, and its commitment to an open and democratized web. As the platform continues to evolve, its global community remains at the heart of its success, driving innovation and ensuring that WordPress thrives as the leading tool for building the open web. From Tokyo, a heartfelt "Arigatou Gozaimashita" to all who joined and contributed to this remarkable event.
For more insights and to explore previous State of the Word keynotes, visit the official State of the Word YouTube Playlist. Additionally, mark your calendars for major WordPress events in 2025, including WordCamp Asia in Manila, WordCamp Europe in Basel, and WordCamp US in Portland.
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