According to a study released by the Pew Research Center, 6 percent of the US Internet-using population frequent the social link destination Reddit. The site grew rapidly following the collapse of its erstwhile competitor, Digg.
Reddit’s rise has been synonymous with the growth in popularity of memes, and meme-based content. That said, Reddit’s flexible sub-Reddit feature, which allows users to create smaller, more directed forums, has allowed the site to keep a wide number of user demographics content.
Landing a story on the Reddit homepage can send six figure traffic to the hosting website, making its digital real estate quite valuable. Who uses Reddit? According to Pew, it’s a bit dude-heavy. Regarding the US Internet population:
Some 15% of male internet users ages 18-29 say that they use reddit, compared with 5% of women in the same age range and 8% of men ages 30-49.
So, as you probably expected if you use the site, Reddit’s userbase skews young, and male.
If I can be allowed a cranky moment, as an ancient Redditor – my account is now 5 years old – the site has changed. The above statistics are not surprising to anyone who has used the site for more than a few years. Its userbase has consistently fallen in terms of average age. This has changed Reddit. The sub-Reddit system has kept folks like me along, as we can curate away from the younger crowd, but it is not a permanent solution.
That said, I doubt it matters. Reddit’s growth is from youths, and the numbers look good. 6 percent is a huge slice of the United States’ population as a whole. I would not be surprised to see Reddit at 10% within a year.
Top Image Credit: Lindsay Eyink
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.