[October 29, 2014]

AddThis Q3 Analysis Reveals Steady Increase in Mobile Content Engagement and Top Categories and Methods for Social Sharing

AddThis today announced the results of its Q3 analysis of content engagement on the open Web. Highlights from the quarter include insight into the rise of mobile Web traffic and the most popular categories for consuming content on mobile devices. Additionally, AddThis has identified the quarter's top 10 services for sharing, the top 10 methods used for sharing content and the top 10 categories for the most shared content.

Among those sites using AddThis website tools, mobile traffic has steadily increased more than six percent each month since April 2014, providing the company with insight into content engagement actions of more than 743 million unique mobile users. Mobile traffic now accounts for 37 percent of total online traffic, compared to 33 percent at the end of June.

The AddThis quarterly analysis provides advertisers, publishers and agencies with key insight and trending data that are critical to online content development and personalization strategies. The most recent analysis uncovered the following:

• When it comes to mobile content, the categories that saw the most engagement, as defined by page views over the quarter were family and parenting, travel and retail. Specifically, pregnancy related content saw 187 percent more traffic from mobile. Retail content received 6.3 percent of mobile traffic and travel content received 6.1 percent of mobile traffic.
• Meanwhile, the content categories that dominated on the desktop were finance and education. Specifically, educational content sees 74 percent more traffic from desktop computers and 64 percent of traffic to personal finance content occurred on a desktop.
• Politics and current events peak between 5 a.m. - 8 a.m.
• Style & Fashion and Entertainment peak between 6 p.m. and 12 a.m. (midnight).
• Sports remains consistent throughout the day with slightly increased engagement during the weekend.

The top 10 categories of content most often shared on the open Web during Q3 2014 are:

A comparative analysis of the top sharing services reveals that Facebook (News - Alert), Twitter and Facebook Like remain the top three sharing services quarter-over-quarter. According to AddThis, the top ten sharing services for the third quarter were as follows.

Additionally, a quarter-over-quarter analysis of the top ten methods used for sharing and engaging with content reveals the following.

The sample size for the Q3 analysis included 1.7 billion unique, anonymous Web browsers on desktops and 720 million mobile devices from July 1 - September 30, 2014.

About AddThis

AddThis personalizes the Web with powerful, easy-to-use content engagement tools, advertising services and data solutions. Reaching more than 1.7 billion unique consumers monthly, AddThis tools are used by more than 14 million websites worldwide to power personalization, social sharing, increase overall engagement, boost traffic and provide behavioral insight. The company's proprietary technology processes more than 300 terabytes of data daily allowing AddThis to provide brands with sophisticated audience models and Web-wide consumer insight that enhance paid, earned and owned media strategies.

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