Lock in a year of Digiday+ for 35% less. Ends May 29.
Analytics nightmare: 82 percent of mobile sharing is done through dark social
A new report sheds some light on the tall numbers in the murky world of “dark social.”
Globally, 82 percent of content shared on mobile is shared through messaging, email or text, according to a report released today from ad platform RadiumOne, called the “The dark side of mobile sharing.” In 2014, it was below 50 percent. Just 13 percent is shared via Facebook, and the remaining 10 percent through the other public social networks.
RadiumOne based the numbers on the actions of the 940 million people globally on the platform.
Dark social, or dark traffic, is a rising issue for publishers as they try to get a handle on traffic patterns. This is exacerbated by the adoption of secure encryption technologies by sites and services, making referral traffic harder to pin down.
Daniel Price, head of social operations at Lost Boys, said clients are trying to get their head around dark social, but the shift to building directly on platforms could make it unimportant. “By building functionality and utility into Facebook Messenger, it becomes more of a web platform than a social messaging app.”
More in Media
WTF is back button hijacking?
Google is cracking down on “back button hijacking,” which some publishers use to offset declining referral traffic and monetization pressure.
Why Amazon and YouTube pitched operating systems, not just TV inventory at this year’s upfront
Negotiations over identity, infrastructure, AI-driven buying take place as much as programing.
The Economist prepares for a two‑track internet: one for humans and one for AI agents
The Economist is testing agent-readable versions of content that already sits outside its paywall, as it prepares for “two versions of the web.”