Random graphs

[charmian]

(note, you might need to be logged into google to see the full graph)

Was bored and looking at Google Trends, randomly.

http://trends.google.com/websites?q=myspace.com&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0

In the past year, Myspace has lost over 50% of its traffic.

This made me curious to see how LJ was doing.

http://trends.google.com/websites?q=livejournal.com&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=0

Globally, LJ has stayed stable, with around two million daily visitors.

http://trends.google.com/websites?q=livejournal.com&geo=RU&date=ytd&sort=0

In Russia, traffic has risen significantly over the past year, to around over ~1.4 (maybe 1.5) million.

http://trends.google.com/websites?q=livejournal.com&geo=US&date=ytd&sort=0

In about a year, the US daily visitor traffic, however, has gone from ~500K to somewhat under ~400K. This represents around a 20% decline. (Thusly, Russian traffic is about three times the size of US traffic, and the US contributes 20% of LJ's visitors, if Google Trends' stats are correct.)

Comments

[sub_divided]

I'm happy Russian users are there to prop up the service. I realized this the other day when I was looking for old band interviews, and I found that they'd disappeared from everywhere on the web (even archive.org) except for the LJ comm where people'd been collecting and reposting them.

[charmian]

Yeah, they're keeping it alive. It will be interesting, though, to see whether the Russian side can be maintained; and also, what become of the English side in a year.

[sophie]

The fact that LJ is popular in Russia is by no means new, and the rise of Russian users last year is about the same as the year before that. I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be maintained.

[charmian]

Wasn't implying it was new?

There can always be new sites coming in, and I did read (via google translate) some articles indicating disatissfaction with some technical aspects of LJ in Russia. So I don't think it's a 100% thing that LJ will continue to grow.

[starlady]

Wow, MySpace, 50% of its traffic lost? Wow.

That said, if LJ traffic breaks down to 60% Russia, 20% U.S., and 20% elsewhere, it makes sense for LJ to put all of its money into development on the Russian side.

[charmian]

It does, which is why I'm totally unsurprised that that is where their focus is.

Tumblr and LJ

[petronia]

http://trends.google.com/websites?q=tumblr.com,+livejournal.com&geo=US&date=all&sort=0

The graph looks the same for all Western countries I checked. Russian traffic is such that LJ's overall traffic is increasing, though, so overall they're running neck to neck. XD;

The trend line for Farmville.com crossed LJ's at almost the exact same time as Tumblr's. COINCIDENCE??

Re: Tumblr and LJ

[charmian]

Hmm, interesting! I didn't think to check it vis a vis tumblr. Yeah, it looks like Tumblr is, demographically, in some sense the heir to LJ (used by lots of teens, etc). I was actually reading an article which posited that Tumblr was popular because of fluidity of it all, and how it was a different breed of social media from FB (so that most people are actively using both).