Which platform should you popularize content amongst the Westerners?
In previous articles, we have been stressing the importance of diversifying exposure into different social media and even interest groups to get your first batch of followers. Still, one should invest different efforts and time into different platforms, depending on the activeness and potential reach of the particular medium. In this article, we will talk a bit about the latest stat of the hottest media in the West and the figures will be especially useful if you coincidentally target either European or U.S. market.
(Source: Kepios Analysis)
Despite its privacy scandal, Facebook by far tops the league table with a figure of 2.2 billion users visiting the social network at least once per month. YouTube and WhatsApp shared the number 2 seat, with the support of a 1.5 billion monthly active users. The only non-Western social platforms on the list are all Chinese platforms, namely WeChat and QQ, owned by Tencent and Sina Weibo. The reason for that Twitter has fallen out of top 10 is its slowdown of growth cannot keep pace with the fast growing latecomers, let alone its Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). It is reported that the MAU of Reddit is now equivalent to that of Twitter and the interaction of active users on Reddit is fascinating. Hot topics on Reddit frequently got referenced to other platforms and major media, therefore it comes as no surprise that Reddit is more influential than Twitter.
The company’s data revealed the rapid growth over the past few months, surging from 250 million MAUs last November to 330 million by early April this year. The 30%+ increase in less than 6 months puts Reddit on par with other global social media big players. Third party analytics company, Alexa also shows that Reddit is the website of the 6th most traffic over the world. Its analytics clearly shows that westerners spend more time every day than the time spent on any other social platforms by a long way. On average, Reddit users consume more than 15 minutes per day while Facebook user spend around 11 minutes and Twitter users spend merely 6.5 minutes. Despite the fact that the data is collected solely on website and neglects the traffic of the mobile app of each platform, the real gap is expected to be even wider, based on our common understanding of how addicted netizens are to Reddit. Please be reminded that Facebook and Instagram are widely used in Asia and Twitter is prevalent in some Asian countries as well while Reddit has, however, not been able to step into the market and neither did it put effort into the Asian region. As a result, if you only take Europe, Canada and USA into account, the metrics of Reddit can be even more appealing, compared to other international social media.
(Source: Alexa)
What’s more surprising is that compared to all the top visited sites, Reddit users spend the most time, regardless of the categories of the websites. In other words, even though the number of Reddit’s MAUs is left behind the global social platforms, its interaction metrics is more enticing than any other websites, in investors’ or marketers’ eyes, if you are looking for brand awareness. Reddit is still crowned with championship, compared with male-favored sites- porn. From the metrics, one can claim Reddit is more indulging than porn sites.
The information gives marketers and influencers a clearer direction of how much effort or resource they should put into each platform, apart from putting all eggs into advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Apparently, if you hope to test the water of a new product or video, Reddit is an ideal place to spread your work, given that you have to be so brass-necked that no memes that Redditors may say about the work are going to hurt you. Compelling as it may seem, the platform is only limited to speakers of English or European languages. In case you primarily target Europe or USA, expose your contents on all media and perhaps put slightly more effort into Reddit than the others. Speak in front of crowd and sell yourself! Your nonpareil workmanship will eventually pay off.
