Mixx is steadily growing, and they’re hoping to spur even greater traffic increases with a completely revamped website. But every social news service is showing growth, and Mixx actually appears to be lagging if you compare publicly available data.
Last time we wrote about Mixx, they were touting healthy traffic numbers and boasting the fact that Hitwise report suggested that its users are more mainstream than those of their main competitor Digg. Today, the company says its visitor numbers have increased to about 7 million per month (citing January figures), which is up from 5.8 million in October 2008.
Meanwhile, all the big social news and discovery services are showing healthy growth, and Mixx appears to still play in the minor leagues. Take a look at this snapshot from Compete, for example, which show Digg is thriving and Reddit is steadily outpacing Mixx. Google Trends paints a slightly different picture but still pegs Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon to be more popular than Mixx. Quantcast, finally, says Mixx receives about a 1/5 of the amount of visitors Digg does.
For the sake of comparison: Mixx raised $3.5 million in funding so far, while Digg pocketed $40 million to date.
Mixx is launching a new website today to better serve their existing users, which they claim have provided all the feedback that was used to put together the revamped web presence.
We’ll let you be the judge (more info here):
Old Mixx
New Mixx
Hmm, it seems like with slowing growh and the difficulty in monetising traffic, the social news sites will have a very tough 2009.
Anjali Sen
I have been using mixx, digg and stumbleupon for some time now and must say that I found stumbleupon to be the best. It will be interesting to see if Mixx, with its new UI, will be able to divert traffic from other sites
i have been using Mix for sometime now, the best part i like is the quality of the posts, kudos to the team behind it . i guess even 2009 could prove to be good for them
With every news of Mixx or similar sites I feel its being exaggerated and overhyped also what’s visible in Compete’s visitors graph its still lag behing to Digg far far away.
If one consider Mixx than are plenty of similar sites, with same or more traffic count and much newer to it, than why Mixx?
These social news sites have their trappings. Often, the same stories will show up on Digg, Reddit, Stumbelupon at the same time. Also, each social news site has its core members who skew which content makes it to the front page. Digg for instance, usually has one Apple computers story, one Nintendo story, one anti DRM/copy protection story, and they also love conspiracy theories.
When I go to popurls, which aggregates all the social news sites, I see how limited they are. Supposedly, social news brings you the ‘best of the web’, but I keep seeing the same types of content every day on these sites because the readers are all 18-25 year old men with a very adolescent sensibiltiy.
I thought social bookmarking was dead?
There does not seem to be a lot of difference in the two. Maybe I will move some widgets around and re-launch http://www.spendingless101.com.
Thanks Robin, we always appreciate the coverage on Tech Crunch. Since we did not speak directly, I’d like to clarify the traffic and growth on Mixx. After 16 months we have now grown to a user base of 7 million people per month.
We have no idea how Compete measures things, our own Google ananlytics reflect a growing and healthy and happy comunity. We’d be happy to share those metrics publicly. Further, we are not competing for a finite pie and are in fact fans of Digg, Reddit etc.
We’re about 2 years ahead of our planned metrics and will continue to serve this growing dynamic comunity.
Sincerely,
Chris McGill
Mixx Founder
You are totally unfair in your enforcement of your so called terms of use. You allow users to defame other Mixxers with conservative values and sit back, wait for the conservatives to get angry and then ban them with no warnings.
It is totally unfair the way you run your site and your admin are jerks who basically insult anyone who wants a fair shake. You may be great at news but you have a lot to learn about business and treating others with opposing views with respect.
butthurt
Is it just me or is there not much difference. Plus the differences arent really going to make drastic changes.
I really like mixx approach to users, while digg.com behaves like a 800 lbs gorilla that kill his users, mixx.com is doing its thingy in the background, damn its grow is so small, I would like to have Mixx.com grow bigger, they deserve it…., but they will have to change the formula, the digg.com style is so saturated, that there is almost not space for others, but innovating. Go Mixx!
Mixx site organized much better than Digg’s one.
Definetly a exciting space, I think easily the biggest in terms of internet usage.
I don’t think mixx will overtake digg though. digg is the benchmark, the real innovator in the news space. I think mixx should try and differentiate itself, maybe this design might help towards that.
digg is only going to get bigger, I think there is so much potential in them. They have enormous potential to grow across the internet, syndicating their content. Maybe syndication is the future for news sites rather than being outright destinations.
I have been using a Mixx for sometime, the best part is I like the quality, position, prestige team support. I think in this year might be good for them
iam still using mixx.its cool.
I don’t buy the data from Compete, or the relative trendlines, they seems way off.
Digg is “Quantified” (i.e., Quantcast code is on Digg pages) and Quantcast only shows them at 27.5M uniques (whereas compete seems to have them at 35M or higher).
Mixx is also Quantified, and Quantcast shows them at just 5.7M (vs. 1M on Compete).
Compete looks to be about as reliable as Alexa…not worth citing them.
There’s definitely room for a handful of players in this space, but it’s time Mixx kicks it into overdrive…..
When citing Compete never forget that it only shows US traffic. Mixx is popular in Europe and Asia, especially India while the other sites are US only.
The issue with Mixx is that it brings hardly any traffic. I have had stories front paged on there, I have had friend’s have stories that front paged there, and I have had people that I work with have stories front page on there and the traffic is non-existent.
Yeah do I like the layout and community better than digg? Sure. But people aren’t going to become part of the community and join it if they don’t see the stories that they are posting getting anyone reading it. Why take the time and effort to post a story you like and find when under 100 people are going to read it? Versus me throwing up a story on Reddit (which takes less time) and knowing that a few thousand will probably see it.
Why take the time and effort to post a story you like and find when under 100 people are going to read it?
– My guess is there are 2 types of folks that use these tools:
1) folks that want “random people” to see what they post and read it
2) folks that want “their friends/family” to see what they post and read it
I couldn’t care less if the digg’s that I post are read by anybody but my digg friends.
What difference does it make if it hits the front page or not?
Kevin, you are the reason places like Digg suck so much.
It isn’t your little personal spam engine, why are you digging your own stories? That is sort of lame. Digg and Mixx are about you sharing interesting content and discovering interesting content — it isn’t some submission engine for you to increase your personal readership — you’ve taken the idea of a community and turned it into your own telemarketing call list.
One of the things I think Mixx does really well over Digg is keeping that sort of activity from taking place as much. That is why the content is typically better, IMO.
Where did I say that I submit my own content? Thanks for putting the words into my mouth. Stories have been submitted from my site that have front paged and I saw hardly any traffic. I didn’t say I submitted a story and gamed it and it sucked because I didn’t get anything.
Sure Mixx doesn’t have as many people gaming the system as Digg but Mixx elects people with special privileges to push stuff. And you can bet your ass they are pushing their own stuff along with other content.
From an SEO and Internet marketing standpoint, mixx can be highly effective. Digg has become too mainstream and everything interesting/noninteresting is dugg, in my opinion.
I tried to like mixx but the users are all rejects from digg. It’s an ugly site and they get links last after stumbleupon, reddit, digg then mixx. It really is awful.
The only reason they have grown is because of deals they have with sites like usatoday where the ‘mixx’ button is bigger than the rest and placed first.
Every site does it better than you mixx. I’m sorry but I tried to like you.
Mixx is basically a repository for radical left wing activists. If you like to waive rainbow flags and support conspiracy theories it is the place to go. The CEO readily admits being a big time leftist on his Twitter account and is a big time Obama supporter.
I was banned without any warnings. The left wingers at Mixx constantly bait and attack anyone with a conservative counterpoint and get them banned. Although posters like Violet Planet and Yoda break all the Mixx rules, the Admins basically give you a kangaroo court and side with the radical left wingers.
Basically no different that DIGG in that respect. The site itself kicks ass, but the CEO is unfair and clearly has a left wing agenda. They like to brag they are a private company so they can do what they want.
I tried many times to address their unfair kangaroo court policies, but they NEVER reply.
I will second the never reply point made by Injury Lawyer regarding Mixx. I have filed a couple of complaints and Mixx admin completely ignores your complaint. They never reply. Never!
Mixx also has roving gangs of social thugs who choose members to pick on, then gang up on the member calling him names, making nonsensical arguments, etc. Basically they follow the member around the site trying to get the member to reply with an insulting comment. Then they complain to admin as a group and get the member banned. Their methods are pretty much like what high school girls do–bully others.
The site is poorly policed by Mixx management so it kind of takes the fun out of the social Mixxing because Mixx management does not even pay any attention to the gangs.
There are also a lot of anti-Semitic comments so I would recommend that Jewish people think twice about joining.
Hear hear. Also, I would like to retract one of my opinions above. With regard to banning conservatives without warnings. I can only speak for myself. I was timed out several times with zero warning prior to my initial 7 day time out and immediate BAN upon conclusion of the time out.
Therefore, I retract the statement as to all conservatives. I can only speak for myself and consider myself a conservative.
Prior to that, I approached the so called “admin”. Admin agreed the time outs were mistaken and that other Mixxers had reported me. Violet started a ban ring with a few other Mixxers.
I was reinstated. Then, Violet Planet accused me in a rhetorical question of being a member of the KKK. She lost her Super Mixxer status for 3 days.
Then a few days later, as if she had a crystal ball, said that I would be banned and heads would roll. Then I was timed out for 7 days. Again with ZERO warning or explanation from anyone at Mixx.
Then, on the 7th day I logged into my PROFILE on my office PC. Posted one link called “Silencing Christians” Was immediately not only silenced, but my entire Mixx profile was immediately removed.
Several days later, a military buddy of mine informs me that Violet Planet is now spreading a FALSE rumor I was banned for logging in under a different username.
Question: How is it that this radical is getting this info? Why is she allowed to spread private info assuming it was true – and it was NOT true?
Anyways, back on point. I NEVER LOGGED IN under any account other than the account I set up during that 7 day suspension.
In fact, I received an e-mail several hours after my profile was removed that my account was now active.
The admin they use at Mixx insulted me personally, told me I was “paranoid”, etc. What kind of a business let’s their employees treat people that way?
I also sent several e-mails to the CEO, and even invited him to my Linked in profile to try and reason with the guy. Still nothing.
Okay…so which is it? Were you banned without warning, or were you put in “timeout” several times first, which would constitute a warning?
Get your story straight, or shut up already. And from what I’ve read here, yeah…you do sound paranoid. I know you’ve creeped me out.
again, butthurt
lies, lies, lies – you were given numerous warnings for your inappropriate behavior
I was banned many times from Mixx? I prefer Reddit.com or Digg.com better