[a_bonobo]

>9gag aggregates memes and jokes from around the web — much like Reddit

Evil persons would mention that much of the content on 9gag is copied from Reddit's r/funny (which is on a large scale hard to proof) - but they got funding, so why not, looks like a viable business model.

The example-pic the article uses can be found on Reddit, with the same title, over Google: http://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/ykrlh/when_links_are_... Can't tell which one came first, as the article's pic doesn't have a time.

>Its founders say that in July, 9gag had more than 65 million unique visitors, compared to Reddit’s 39.7 million

According to Wolfram Alpha, Reddit has roughly double the amount of unique daily visitors when compared to 9gag: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=reddit+9gag (Keep in mind these numbers are daily, not monthly like in the article)

[alanfang]

Wolfram Alpha also uses Alexa which is next to useless for traffic estimates.

[a_bonobo]

True, because it's based on their spyware-toolbar, so you only measure the people who are relatively clueless about their computer - but in absence of the 9gag-people citing their sources there's not much more to do.

I don't know how ranking.com generates the numbers, but in their ranking reddit.com is 11,763, 9gag is 11,768 and 4chan is 11,775 - all kinda identical.

[necubi]

Actually, 9gag does release their numbers, via Quantcast[0]. According to those, they have a long ways to catch up to Reddit, which even in 2010 [1] had more than double the visitors (3mm vs 8mm "people" monthly).

Incidentally, the 65mm visitors from that quote seems to have been actually referring to page views, of which Reddit had 429mm monthly in 2010.

[0] http://www.quantcast.com/9gag.com [1] http://blog.reddit.com/2010/07/experts-misunderestimate-our-...

(disclaimer: I work for Quantcast).

[a_bonobo]

Cool! Thanks for the insight, so did they mix page views with unique visitors?

Also, off-topic question: How do you measure a visitor's income or education level, do you deduce based on location?

[s_henry_paulson]

Nearly all of Reddit content is not created by users and comes from other sources.

[endersshadow]

I think you have to qualify that. Nearly all of /r/pics and /r/funny (or any image-centric sub) is not OC. However, /r/AskReddit, /r/IAmA, etc are all entirely Redditor-generated content. Those are huge subreddits, and should not be discounted. Reddit is a gargantuan site with a metric ton of content. It's greatly expanded since its initial charge to be a news aggregator. Reddit now deals almost exclusively in communities.

Because Reddit is the amalgamation of its communities, you get this backlash against 9gag--us vs. them and all. I'm interested to see how this evolves. I think 9gag will have to be something better than "funny stuff" eventually. Internet history is littered with companies/sites that were spun up around other people's funny content, got very popular, and have since gone by the wayside.

That's why I think Reddit will continue to survive. Its communities are its lifeblood. I don't know enough about 9gag to know if it can really form this community well and keep it, or if it's another just ebaum's World.

[pc86]

The important part is that the article - and ultimately, the funding - are because of 9gag users uploading stuff they find on r/pics and r/funny, even though they'd never admit that (much like most Redditors would never admit the majority of Reddit's memes either originated from or are directly from 4chan).