this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023

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TIL that 70% of US traffic on reddit is from users on a mobile device. (www.semrush.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago

Back when I used reddit... weird saying I know, I consumed Reddit on my phone, my ipad, and desktop in various combinations, pretty much constantly. Phone/ipad during work, and additional desktop use after. Desktop using Reddit Enhancement Suite (unusable without really), and Apollo for mobile. Spez made going cold turkey on Reddit stupid easy for this heavy user of over 10 years.

It's like going to your favorite donut shop every day for a decade, where your on good terms with the employees, but the boss is shit but you hardly ever see him so it's ok. Then one day, instead of the usual server, Spez shows up, and hands you your favorite donut with a scoop of shit on top, and says that's how they serve them now. Yeah, I'll go somewhere else, thanks.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

And 50% of mobile users are on a toilet

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I feel like that should be 50% of ALL Reddit users are on a toilet (guilty as charged). So if you have 50% of users on the toilet, and 70% of them on mobile, why that looks like a perfect 5/7 to me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I had forgotten about 5/7. Ah, back in the good ol’ days of Reddit.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Exactly why reddit wanted all 3rd party apps gone. All they could see was dollar signs going down the toilet.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

They had dollars while you were on the toilet. Now it's flushed down the drain.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Now they see it burning

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'll sue the desktop site on my phone before I'll use that hot garbage they call an app. It loads faster and works better plus not fucking video ads or that Jesus shit ad they are pushing.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I could never get use to the desktop layout.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

I think you kinda need extensions to really make it work. New reddit was cancer. Old reddit with reddit enhancement suite and imagus (hover to show images) made the experience pretty awesome.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Old.reddit.com with Res is the way. But they seem to be breaking it slowly.

I noticed for example that chat stopped working recently. They really want you to use the new layout.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I just don’t understand the thought process. They could’ve just shelled out $10M for Apollo and made that the official Reddit app. Then give users the choice of ads or pay for ad free experience.

so basically they’re making a massive gamble that most people will just switch over to their garbage app. Maybe they will, but for sure the power users, big sub moderators & regular posters are all coming to Lemmy. You know, all the people that made Reddit worth visiting.

Personally I think this will be the end of Reddit.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, Reddit did shell out money for a third party client. They bought the iOS app Alien Blue in 2014 and turned that into an official app before quickly abandoning it for their client in 2016.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They bought the app , and then destroyed it.

They should have learned for their second try, and just bought the app, then not destroyed it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That would never happen though. The icentives of Christian Selig and the incentives of Reddit are very different. People like it because it's not made by Reddit

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That is the crux of the issue, yeah. Reddit needs to make money, which requires enshittifying their app to serve more ads...which drives people away from using their app.

Lemmy's lack of profit motive is probably the best thing going for it. The decentralization is good too, but I still think it's secondary to the fact that it doesn't need to try to make a profit

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If your core offering can be recreated by a bunch of hobbyists in the their spare time, and your value is 100% the content your users create and moderate then perhaps you're not the great product company you thought you were and you should leave product creation to others.

But hey, perhaps it's a good idea to take the reasons for using your site away and see what happens.

After all, your friends take their private planes everywhere while you're forced to fly first class occasionally - and you want that money.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Realistically Reddit will survive, but it will be a zombie of its former self, kind of similar to how Digg is these days. Let's just hope it kills their valuation and /u/spez has to answer for it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

...digg still exists?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

MySpace does too!

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I'm sure it won't affect them to get rid of 3rd party apps....

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

WAS from users on mobile. Was.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (7 children)

The remaining 30% computer users might be me googling all my IT problems

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Not anymore LOL

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

To be honest, I really doubt they felt the exodus. Most people don't care what Reddit is doing and /r/videos alone had more users than entire Lemmy network. I wish they felt it. I refuse to open Reddit now. They could have had a different, more user friendly approach, but no... quick and easy way to earn money.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just deleted Apollo off my phone, so I guess I'm done with Reddit for the most part.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I haven’t had the heart to delete it yet, but I’m also pretty much done with Reddit.

I checked it out on desktop today. Top 8 hits in 4 of my favorite subs were busted bot reposts. It was a short visit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Same, I used a different app on Android but I can't bring myself to delete it

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Relevant screenshot for those interested

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Spez really killed the whole damn site, the greedy little pigboy

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

really makes you wonder how Swartz would feel about all this. what would he think of the fediverse? lemmy vs reddit?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

*TIL that 70% of US traffic on reddit WAS from users on a mobile device

Until July 1 2023 🪦

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Rip <your favourite 3rd party app>

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is true for most online platforms. I work in Online Education as a SaaS Admin for LMS system hosting and at a conference I went to 4 or 5 years ago the UAE did an in depth presentation on their online academic outreach program. The adoption of education on mobile phones was astounding and the only other platform that mattered metric wise was Window PCs and it was a distant second.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you have any links to this research? Sounds super interesting

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Not anymore but they gave the presentation years ago so it may be posted somewhere. The data was very fascinating but also exactly what someone in my field already knew. I enjoyed seeing an entire countries data set vs my single institution and was pleased to see that my local trends reflected those of a country not even on my continent. I see they have a covid education trend study up also so I am probably going to read some of that info this month since it isn't tainted by my local data biases.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (10 children)

I uninstalled boost today, can't wait for Boost for Lemmy. Although Jebora is pretty nice too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Jerboa is a hot mess of bugs and I really miss RiF...but it's still a thousand times better than the official Reddit app

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

well reddit on desktop is completely unusable. even old reddit with RES is garbage. that’s why 3rd party clients were so important.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I guess I got comfortable with RES over the years because I rather enjoyed using it on my desktop.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I will not sit at desk to read . Smartphone are just way better for this kind of task . Most people access the internet with a smartphone ,not a PC tower.

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