‘Protest subreddits led to 6.6 percent fewer users’

The blackout of thousands of subreddits led to 6.6 percent fewer Reddit users at its peak than on an average day, claims web analytics firm Similarweb. The average time a user spent on the platform decreased by more than 14 percent.

A subreddit on black

From the statistics, seen by Engadget, shows that Reddit attracted about 52.1 million visitors on June 13, which would be 6.6 percent fewer than on an average day last month. On the day before the protest of thousands of subreddits began, more than 57 million users were registered on desktops and smartphones, an above-average number of users. Reddit has not confirmed whether Similarweb’s figures are accurate.

The average time a user spent on the platform fell to the lowest point in the past three years on June 12 and 13, according to the same source. Instead of an average user time of about 8 minutes and 31 seconds shortly before the protest, a user used Reddit for an average of only 7 minutes and 17 seconds. That is a decrease of more than 14 percent.

During the protest period, Reddit was in principle accessible. If someone tried to visit a subreddit participating in the protest, they would see a notification that it was currently a “private community.” The content on the subreddit was therefore not freely accessible. This may explain why the average number of users decreased by only 6.6 percent, while the average user duration was hit harder. Moreover, Reddit’s CEO said that the protest has so far had no effect on the forum platform’s revenue.

Thousands of subreddits went ‘black’ from June 12 by temporarily making the subreddit private. This was a protest against the platform’s announced API changes; Reddit wants to charge third parties for using the Reddit API. Although there is little protest against the principle of making the use of the API paid, the platform is said to charge exorbitant amounts.