The drama at Reddit sure hasn't hurt traffic

Advertisement

REDDIT1

Reuters

Reddit mascots are displayed at the company's headquarters in San Francisco, California April 15, 2014.

July was a record month for link sharing and community site Reddit, with a record 8 billion pageviews and 195 million monthly visitors, according to the site's own public-facing stats.

Advertisement

Reddit had a tough July. After a popular employee was apparently fired, users revolted. The backlash eventually led CEO Ellen Pao to step down, and she was replaced by Reddit founder Steve Huffman - who almost immediately proposed a set of controversial rules to help police the site.

It was a lot of drama. But in the wake of all of that, Reddit has never been more popular.

Complimentary Tech Event
Transform talent with learning that works
Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

In May, Reddit had 175 million unique visitors. In June, it had 177 million unique visitors. That means that with July's 195 million figure, Reddit is growing almost nine times faster than it was before the drama, as TechCrunch points out.

It's a counterpoint to the notion that competing sites, primarily Voat, are eating Reddit's readership.

Advertisement

Still, it's possible that a lot of those new readers and visitors just wanted to see what was going on during the ongoing controversy. The real test, for Reddit as both a community and an advertising-based business, will be if they stay around.