Social Blade

Social Blade, LLC

Screenshot of Social Blade's homepage
Type Limited liability company
Founded February 8, 2008
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s) Jason Urgo
Industry Internet
Parent Independent
Website SocialBlade.com
Alexa rank positive decrease 5,978 (April 2015)[1]
Advertising Google AdSense
Registration Not required
Available in English
Launched February 8, 2008
Current status Active

Social Blade is an internet company that provides user-friendly statistics to track changes in social media following and viewership. The platform was created by Jason Urgo in February 2008, at which point it tracked only Digg statistics. Since then, the company has expanded to include statistics for YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram. Social Blade also provides consulting services, as well as a whole host of other free resources in an attempt to aid users in increasing their social followings. According to its website, Social Blade currently tracks more than 4 million YouTube channels[2] and receives over 1.1 million unique visitors every month.[1]

Social Blade is also the home to a fostered community of internet content creators and industry professionals, with a variety of resources at public disposal including an Internet Relay Chat room, forum bulletin board, and blog.

Operational history

Social Blade was founded by Jason Urgo in Raleigh, North Carolina, to track Digg statistics in 2008. Over time the focus of the platform changed, with the introduction of YouTube statistics that was immediately succeeded by the removal of Digg statistics at a time when the news aggregator's user base was in mass exodus.[2]

In 2012, Social Blade was registered as a limited liability company, bringing their entire staff team on as full-time employees.[2]

In October 2013, Twitch statistics were introduced as the second social media site that the platform would track, along with a complete re-design of the website.[3]

In April 2014, Instagram statistics were added to the platform.[4]

On October 14, 2014, Social Blade launched their consulting services after a several week long trial period. Consulting services offer clients the ability to talk one-on-one with one of Social Blade's YouTube Certified employees.[5] Soon after, the company expanded their premium offerings to include channel management and branding services.

Tracking

YouTube

YouTube statistics are Social Blade's flagship service, currently tracking more than 3.3 million channels. Channel tracking metrics include subscriber count, video views, and uploads. These metrics are updated daily, providing insight into historical channel growth patterns and trends. This information is also used to render graphs predicting future channel gains and losses, and to organize channels into top lists highlighting the most popular channels across the video platform. Industry-standard CPM rate ranges are used to provide estimated earning figures, a feature that has been the spotlight of numerous media reports, including those by organizations such as CNBC,[6] Reuters,[7] and The New York Times.[8]

Social Blade also collects data on channels' Multi-channel network affiliation and displays that on individual channel pages. This data is aggregated for each network to provide network overviews including total affiliated channels, network views, and network subscribers on both a monthly and all-time scale. This information has also been used in many news reports, including those by TechCrunch.[9]

Twitch

Twitch was the second social media platform that Social Blade offered tracking for. Channel tracking metrics include follower count, channel views, and information on their latest game and broadcast status. This data is compiled and used to generate top lists, as well as placement into Social Blade's proprietary grading system. Journalists frequently source Social Blade when covering major news events surrounding the Twitch platform and some of its most high-profile creators.[10]

Instagram

Instagram is the third and latest social media platform that Social Blade offers tracking for. Profile tracking metrics include follower count, following count, and total media uploads. This data is used to predict future following gains or losses, as well as to generate top lists based on overall popularity. Social Blade's Instagram statistics have been the feature of news reports from outlets including Vice[11] and the International Business Times.[12] The site was cited heavily during Instagram's follower purge in December 2014, the purge consisted of Instagram removing bots and inactive users from their system. Over the course of the 24 hour purge Instagram's own user page lost over 18 million followers. [13] Many Celebrities showed the most notable drop in followers, such as Justin Bieber with a 3.5 million follower loss. Other notable losses included Ariana Grande with a loss of 1.5 million followers and Kim Kardashian with a loss of 1.3 million followers. Instagram’s statement on their official help page read "We're in the process of fixing an issue that incorrectly includes inactive or fake accounts in follower/following lists". [14] One user under the alias "chiragchirag78" was found to have lost nearly 100% of their 3.6 million followers, bringing them down to just eight total followers, and later leading to their account's termination.[15]

Partnership

Social Blade previously offered partnership through Maker Studios' entry-level partnership program, Maker Gen. YouTube creators who met the entry requirements could apply through the Social Blade website to have their channel considered for partnership with Maker Studios, a multi-channel network owned by Walt Disney Corporation that specializes in providing creators with the guidance, tools, and production resources necessary to "elevate [their] online voice."[16]

In April 2015, Social Blade ended their affiliation with Maker Studios, citing that their arrangement "wasn't the best fit."[17] At the same time, they announced the formation of a new technology partnership[18] with Vancouver-based BroadbandTV Corp, owned by the RTL Group, that would replace the aforementioned legacy program.[19] The deal with BroadbandTV grants creators that publish on the YouTube platform access to royalty-free audio tracks, engagement analysis tools, as well as other proprietary software created by the media company in exchange for a share of the advertising revenue generated by the partner's YouTube channel.[20]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "SocialBlade.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2015-04-24.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "All About Social Blade". Social Blade. Social Blade. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  3. ↑ Arnold, Jenna. "New Website Tonight!". Social Blade. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  4. ↑ Arnold, Jenna. "Instagram Statistics". Social Blade. Social Blade.
  5. ↑ "YouTube Certified companies". YouTube Help. Google. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  6. ↑ Scolaro, Christina (8 December 2014). "YouTube offers bonuses to top stars to beat rivals". CNBC (CNBC). Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  7. ↑ Malathi, Nayak (1 April 2014). "YouTube sees money in gaming-video eyeballs". Reuters (San Francisco: Reuters). Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  8. ↑ Silcoff, Mireille (15 August 2014). "A Mother’s Journey Through the Unnerving Universe of ‘Unboxing’ Videos". The New York Times Magazine (The New York Times). Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  9. ↑ Buhr, Sarah (22 September 2014). "AT&T And Chernin To Buy Majority Stake In Fullscreen, Valued Between $200-$300 Million Deal". TechCrunch (TechCrunch). Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  10. ↑ Eordogh, Fruzsina (3 January 2014). "How a Pro Gamer Actually Made Money From Hackers DDoSing His Server". Vice Motherboard (Vice). Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  11. ↑ Richmond, Ben. "The Biggest Victim of Instagram's Robot Purge". Vice Motherboard (19 December 2014) (Vice). Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  12. ↑ Rodriguez, Salvador (18 December 2014). "Kim Kardashian Overtakes Justin Bieber On Instagram Following Fake Follower Purge". International Business Times (International Business Times). Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  13. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30548463
  14. ↑ http://uk.eonline.com/news/608104/this-is-how-many-instagram-followers-celebs-lost-in-the-great-purge-of-2014
  15. ↑ Arce, Nicole (19 December 2014). "Instagram Kicks Out Millions of Fake Accounts. Here's a Big Picture of Instagram Rapture". Tech Times. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  16. ↑ "Maker Studios - Join our community of amazing creators and get access to Maker Max today!". Maker Studios. Maker Studios. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  17. ↑ Fratella, Danny (2 April 2015). "Social Blade Announces Partnership with BroadbandTV". Social Blade. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  18. ↑ O'Halloran, Joseph (3 April 2015). "BroadbandTV inks partnership with YouTube analytics platform". Rapid TV News. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  19. ↑ Patel, Sahil (2 April 2015). "BroadbandTV Cuts Exclusive Deal with YouTube Analytics Site Social Blade". VideoInk. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  20. ↑ Bosker, Bianca. "How BroadbandTV Got To Be Watched By Millions Without Making A Single Video". Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 April 2015.