Social Blade: Difference between revisions

{{short description|SocialAmerican social media statistics website}}

'''Social Blade''' (sometimes spelled '''SocialBlade''') is an American [[social media analytics]] website. Social Blade most notably tracks the [[YouTube]] platform, but also has analytical information regarding [[Twitch (service)|Twitch]], [[Facebook]], [[Instagram]], [[Twitter]], [[TikTok]], [[Trovo Live|Trovo]], [[Dailymotion]], [[Mixer (websiteservice)|Mixer]], [[DLive]], and [[Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga|StoryFireDLive]]. Social Blade functions as a [[Web API|third-party API]], providing its users with aggregated data from these various social media platforms. Jason Urgo is the CEO of Social Blade.<ref name=Alexander2018/>

Jason Urgo, the CEO of Social Blade, launched the website in February 2008, to track statistics for the website [[Digg]].<ref name=Urgo2017>{{cite web|last=Urgo|first=Jason|url=https://socialblade.com/blog/nine-years-of-socialblade/|title=Nine Years of Social Blade!|work=Social Blade|date=February 8, 2017|access-date=December 27, 2018|archive-date=February 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200226140523/https://socialblade.com/blog/nine-years-of-socialblade/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=SocialBladeInfo>{{cite web|url=https://socialblade.com/info|title=All About Social Blade|work=Social Blade|access-date=December 27, 2018|archive-date=February 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225124235/https://socialblade.com/info|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2010, the website switched to track YouTube statistics.<ref name=SocialBladeInfo/> In October 2012, Social Blade became an [[Limited liability company|LLC]].<ref name=Urgo2017/> In 2014, Social Blade launched consulting and channel management services.<ref name=Urgo2017/>

On October 24, 2018, Social Blade started a popular live stream to show the subscriber difference between [[T-Series (company)|T-Series]] and [[PewDiePie]] in an [[PewDiePie vs T-Series|online competition]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/10/26/pewdiepie-is-youtubes-most-subscribed-channel-hes-about-be-dethroned/|title=PewDiePie is YouTube's most-subscribed channel. He's about to be dethroned.|newspaper=Washington Post|language=en|access-date=7 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108045910/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/10/26/pewdiepie-is-youtubes-most-subscribed-channel-hes-about-be-dethroned/|archive-date=8 January 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> In April 2019, the stream regularly had 900 viewers and led to a large increase of Social Blade's subscriber count.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/04/the-dumbest-race-on-the-internet-is-finally-over/|title=The Dumbest Race On The Internet Is Finally Over|date=April 1, 2019|access-date=April 11, 2019|last=Walker|first=Alex|publisher=KoTaKu|archive-date=April 14, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414142206/https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/04/the-dumbest-race-on-the-internet-is-finally-over/|url-status=dead}}</ref> To accompany the attention in April 2019, Social Blade pulled an [[April Fools']] joke where they allowed users to change the subscriber counts and ranks to ridiculously high numbers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/april-fools-hacked-social-blade-altered-pewdiepie-t-series-pages-506738|title=April Fools' or hacked? Social Blade features altered PewDiePie and T-Series pages|date=April 1, 2019|last=Porter|first=Matt|access-date=April 11, 2019|language=en|archive-date=August 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805215042/https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/april-fools-hacked-social-blade-altered-pewdiepie-t-series-pages-506738|url-status=live}}</ref>

On its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, Social Blade wrote that "in order to best scale our tracking to meet the needs of millions that use Social Blade, we pull data from YouTube's public API. This means that we're getting the same information you see on public YouTube channel pages, we just work to examine that data across multiple days and aggregate it into a display format that is useful to you."<ref name=SocialBladeFAQ>{{cite web|url=https://socialblade.com/youtube/help|title=Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)|work=Social Blade|access-date=December 27, 2018|archive-date=February 25, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225123017/https://socialblade.com/youtube/help|url-status=live}}</ref> Social Blade is a website that contains subscriber predictions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.techtimes.com/articles/239933/20190320/pewdiepie-briefly-lost-top-spot-on-youtube.htm|title=PewDiePie Briefly Lost Top Spot On YouTube|author=Staff Reporter|date=2019-03-20|website=Tech Times|language=en|access-date=2019-03-26|archive-date=2019-03-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326075800/https://www.techtimes.com/articles/239933/20190320/pewdiepie-briefly-lost-top-spot-on-youtube.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Social Blade also provides real-time subscriber count updates.<ref name=Dwilson2018>{{cite web|last=Dwilson|first=Stephanie Dube|url=https://heavy.com/entertainment/2018/12/pewdiepie-vs-t-series-live-subscriber-count/|title=PewDiePie vs. T-Series Live Subscriber Count|work=[[Heavy.com|Heavy]]|date=December 17, 2018|access-date=December 27, 2018|archive-date=February 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224000344/https://heavy.com/entertainment/2018/12/pewdiepie-vs-t-series-live-subscriber-count/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Social Blade has also been noted to work with content creators and YouTube [[multi-channel network]]s (MCNs) to help creators get partnered.<ref name="Alexander2018">{{cite web |last=Alexander |first=Julia |date=April 24, 2018 |title=YouTube networks drop thousands of creators as YouTube policy shifts |url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/4/23/17268436/fullscreen-socialblade-youtube-mcn-multi-channel-network-creators-monetization |access-date=December 27, 2018 |work=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]]}}[ |archive-date=April 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://leadingweb.vnarchive.org/enweb/blogs20180423221414/socialhttps://www.polygon.com/2018/4/23/17268436/facebookfullscreen-statisticssocialblade-inyoutube-vietnam/]mcn-multi-channel-network-creators-monetization |url-status=live }}</ref>

An official YouTube Twitter account, @TeamYouTube wrote that "Please know that third party apps, such as SocialBlade, do not accurately reflect subscriber activity." Social Blade's Twitter account responded to that tweet, commenting "We don't make up data. We get it from the YouTube API. We rely on it for accuracy." Social Blade's community manager Danny Fratella suggested that YouTube content creators may notice subscriber and view count purges more due to a higher accessibility to data-tracking tools like Social Blade.<ref name=DAnastasio2016>{{cite web|last=D'Anastasio|first=Cecilia|url=https://kotaku.com/youtube-views-are-down-across-the-board-analysis-says-1790440740|title=YouTube Views Are Down, Analysis Says|work=[[Kotaku]]|date=December 23, 2016|access-date=December 27, 2018|archive-date=March 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200306200911/https://kotaku.com/youtube-views-are-down-across-the-board-analysis-says-1790440740|url-status=live}}</ref>

''HuffPost'' wrote that "Social Blade estimates earnings for each YouTube channel based on the money generated for every thousand ad views. These estimates aren't exact. Instead, they create a minimum and maximum amount that a channel could be earning; in some cases, the range can be huge.<ref name=Beres2015>{{cite web|last=Beres|first=Damon|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/05/youtube-stars-money_n_6549906.html|title=YouTube Stars' Huge Earnings Will Make You Question All Your Life Choices|work=[[HuffPost]]|date=February 5, 2015|access-date=December 27, 2018|archive-date=December 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220011840/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/05/youtube-stars-money_n_6549906.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Social Blade's support services manager, Jenna Arnold stated that "the range is huge because the CPMs [cost per thousand views] vary SO much. They can be anywhere from $0.25 to $4.00 on average."<ref name=Beres2015/> Urgo has also commented on the $0.25–$4.00 per 1,000 views range, stating "these data points change from time to time and are not an exact science, but generally hold true for most channels.<ref name=CollinsRosenblatt2018>{{cite web|last1=Collins|first1=Ben|last2=Rosenblatt|first2=Kalhan|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/youtube-shooter-repeatedly-posted-grievances-about-video-platform-n862791|title=YouTube shooter repeatedly posted grievances about the video platform|work=[[NBC News]]|date=April 4, 2018|access-date=December 27, 2018|archive-date=November 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109023730/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/youtube-shooter-repeatedly-posted-grievances-about-video-platform-n862791|url-status=live}}</ref>