{"id":2634,"date":"2021-12-26T19:46:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-27T00:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/?p=2634"},"modified":"2021-12-26T19:46:14","modified_gmt":"2021-12-27T00:46:14","slug":"big-tech-its-self-destructing-as-forecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/2021\/12\/26\/big-tech-its-self-destructing-as-forecast\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Tech, It&#8217;s Self Destructing, As Forecast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Not only was Google replaced by TikTok as the most visited website, Facebook (a corporatist, politicized, disinformation\/ propaganda publisher hiding behind section 230 and misleading investors) was dethroned as the top social media site.  This is accountability, and at least some has arrived in 2021.  This is a huge deal, and this could be the sort of catalyst which encourages Google and Meta (formerly known as Facebook) to do their jobs.  It&#8217;s grounds for celebration for us, and we hope their share prices reflect this newfound internet leader.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Congratulations to TikTok, and to Google (Alphabet) and Factbook (Meta)- YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELVES WORTH CENSORSHIP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">In 2021, the Internet went for TikTok, space and beyond<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>12\/20\/2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/author\/joao-tome\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/author\/joao-tome\">Jo\u00e3o Tom\u00e9<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/author\/sofia-cardita\/\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/author\/sofia-cardita\">Sofia Cardita<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image8-14.png\" alt=\"In 2021, the Internet went for TikTok, space and beyond\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The years come and go, Internet traffic continues to grow (at least so far and with some \u2018help\u2019 from the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/recent-trends-in-internet-traffic\/\">pandemic<\/a>), and Internet applications, be they websites, IoT devices or mobile apps, continue to evolve throughout the year, depending on if they attract human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ll have a more broad Internet traffic-related Year in Review 2021 in the next few days (you can check the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/cloudflare-radar-2020-year-in-review\/\">2020 one here<\/a>), but for now, let\u2019s focus on the most popular domains this year according to our data on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/radar.cloudflare.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cloudflare Radar<\/a>&nbsp;and those domains\u2019 changes in our popularity ranking. With&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/support.alexa.com\/hc\/en-us\/articles\/4410503838999\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Alexa.com<\/a>&nbsp;going away, if you need a domain ranking, you can get it from Cloudflare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ll focus on space (<strong>NASA and SpaceX flew higher<\/strong>), e-commerce (<strong>Amazon and Taobao rule<\/strong>), and social media (<strong>TikTok \u2018danced\u2019 to take the crown from Facebook<\/strong>). We\u2019ll also take a little \u2018bite\u2019 on video streaming wars.&nbsp;<strong>Netflix is a Squid Game of its own<\/strong>&nbsp;and January 2021 was at the highest in our ranking \u2014 probably lockdown and pandemic-related.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chat domains (<strong>WhatsApp, what else<\/strong>) will also be present and, of course, the less established metaverse domains of sorts (<strong>Roblox took the lead from Fortnite late in the game<\/strong>). Come with us, let\u2019s travel through 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following will show the way Cloudflare saw Internet traffic focusing on specific domains (some of which have many websites aggregated into them) and their highs and lows in our global popularity ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-sites-google-dethroned-by-the-young-padawan-tiktok\">Top Sites: Google dethroned by the young \u2018padawan\u2019 TikTok<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s start with our Top Domains Ranking and 2021 brought us a very interesting duel for the Number 1 spot in our global ranking. Google.com (which includes Maps, Translate, Photos, Flights, Books, and News, among others) ended 2020 as the undefeated leader in our ranking \u2014 from September to December of last year it was always on top. Back then TikTok.com was only ranked #7 or #8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-10-most-popular-domains-late-2021\">Top 10 \u2014 Most popular domains (late) 2021<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 TikTok.com<br>2 Google.com<br>3 Facebook.com<br>4 Microsoft.com<br>5 Apple.com<br>6 Amazon.com<br>7 Netflix.com<br>8 YouTube.com<br>9 Twitter.com<br>10 WhatsApp.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-10-most-popular-domains-late-2020\">Top 10 \u2014 Most popular domains (late) 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Google.com<br>2 Facebook.com<br>3 Microsoft.com<br>4 Apple.com<br>5 Netflix.com*<br>6 Amazon.com<br>7 TikTok.com<br>8 YouTube.com<br>9 Instagram.com *<br>10 Twitter.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><small>Amazon was #5 in November, but Netflix surpassed in December 2020 (on some days it was higher than Apple, in #4); Instagram and Twitter were constantly changing positions throughout November and December.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2021 told a different story. It was on February 17, 2021, that TikTok got the top spot for a day. Back in March, TikTok got a few more days and also in May, but it was after August 10, 2021, that TikTok took the lead on most days. There were some days when Google was #1, but October and November were mostly TikTok\u2019s days, including on Thanksgiving (November 25) and Black Friday (November 26).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image5-33.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There are other trends we can see comparing both years \u2014 for 2020 we only show data of the end of the year, after September (Cloudflare Radar was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/introducing-cloudflare-radar\/\">launched<\/a>&nbsp;that month). For example, Facebook.com was steadily number #2 across 2020, but with TikTok.com going up Facebook is now a solid #3, followed by Microsoft.com (Office365 and Teams numbers are included there) and by Apple.com (App Store and Apple TV+ numbers are included), the same trend as in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amazon.com is the juggernaut that follows, but it is interesting to see that since January 2021 the e-commerce website (we will talk more about that category in a few paragraphs) jumped in front of Apple.com. But Apple got back in front, after September, with some exceptions like November 28, 2021, the day before Cyber Monday \u2014 and also December 1 and 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"christmas-time-netflix-time\">Christmas time, Netflix time<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image3-49.png\" alt=\"Netflix had a great 2020 Christmas but also January 2021, especially at the weekend\"\/><figcaption><em>Netflix had a great 2020 Christmas but also January 2021, especially at the weekend<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Another trend is that Netflix surpassed Amazon in December 2020, especially around Christmas week. On some days around 2020 Christmas, Netflix was even higher than Apple, in #4, that is the case with December 23, 25, and from December 29 to January 2, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"february-2-2021-the-day-youtube-and-an-aerobics-instructor-ruled-the-world\">February 2, 2021: The day YouTube (and an aerobics instructor) ruled the world<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In our global popularity ranking we also saw another trend: YouTube, usually ranked #6 or #7, got to the top spot of our list on February 2, 2021 \u2014 and only on that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image6-24.png\" alt=\"This fitness instructor video that happened while the Myanmar coup d\u2019\u00e9tat was happening went viral on February 2, 2021, leading to the creation of thousands of memes\"\/><figcaption><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yEHiTjViicE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>This<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;fitness instructor video that happened while the Myanmar coup d\u2019\u00e9tat was happening went viral on February 2, 2021, leading to the creation of thousands of memes<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Why? One can only guess, but&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Portal:Current_events\/2021_February_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">back then<\/a>, although it was the week of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Super_Bowl_LV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Super Bowl<\/a>&nbsp;(some commercials, like the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BLuqtTn4610\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">one from Doritos<\/a>&nbsp;with Matthew McConaughey, were out on that day), there was another big newsworthy event: the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2021_Myanmar_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Myanmar coup d&#8217;\u00e9tat<\/a>&nbsp;on February 1, 2021. How can a coup in a Southeast Asian country have an impact on YouTube? A&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yEHiTjViicE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">video<\/a>&nbsp;of a fitness instructor who unwittingly filmed as the takeover unfolds behind her took the Internet by storm and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-55901774\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">became viral as the memes<\/a>&nbsp;started to pour in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That February day was also the one where Donald Trump&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/02\/01\/what-to-know-about-trumps-new-legal-team-ahead-of-impeachment-trial.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a>&nbsp;his new legal team for the impeachment trial after the previous one quit, and Jeff Bezos announced he would step down as Amazon\u2019s CEO. That was also the week prior to a record in YouTube\u2019s history. On&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/249396\/top-youtube-videos-views\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">February 11, 2021<\/a>, the video &#8220;Baby Shark Dance&#8221; from Korean education brand Pinkfong was the new most-viewed YouTube video of all time, surpassing the former record holder &#8220;Despacito&#8221; by Luis Fonsi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/trends.google.com\/trends\/explore?date=2021-01-01%202021-12-31&amp;q=%2Fm%2F09jcvs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google Trends<\/a>&nbsp;also shows that the week of February 2 was the one in 2021 that \u201cYouTube\u201d was more searched on Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image1-93.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"social-media-there-s-a-new-kid-in-town\">Social media: There\u2019s a new kid in town<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In what was the second year of the pandemic, social media domains continued high on our ranking. The nine main social media applications were all in our top 100 list of most popular global domains \u2014 the only one out is Quora.com (during 2021 it was between #687 and #242).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image17.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image15.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We can see that TikTok (who also surpassed Google, as we explained before in the global #1 spot) took Facebook from its crown of the most popular social media website-domain in our ranking. So, that should mean that TikTok got more Internet traffic from our standpoint (our ranking is derived from our public DNS resolver 1.1.1.1 and so it&#8217;s not related to the number of unique users or visitors it gets per month) \u2014&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/264810\/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;is, by far, the platform with more users worldwide).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-10-most-popular-social-media-domains-late-2021\">Top 10 \u2014 Most popular social media domains (late) 2021<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 TikTok.com<br>2 Facebook.com<br>3 YouTube.com<br>4 Twitter.com<br>5 Instagram.com<br>6 Snapchat.com<br>7 Reddit.com<br>8 Pinterest.com<br>9 LinkedIn.com<br>10 Quora.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-10-most-popular-social-media-domains-late-2020\">Top 10 \u2014 Most popular social media domains (late) 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Facebook.com<br>2 TikTok.com<br>3 YouTube.com<br>4 Instagram.com<br>5 Twitter.com<br>6 Snapchat.com<br>7 Reddit.com<br>8 Pinterest.com<br>9 LinkedIn.com<br>10 Quora.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Facebook outage \u2014 that&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/october-2021-facebook-outage\/\">we<\/a>&nbsp;explained from our standpoint&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/during-the-facebook-outage\/\">extensively<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 on October 4, 2021, also had an impact on Facebook\u2019s position in our ranking, leading to Facebook.com losing its #3 position (it was #4) for seven days in a row in that week. This number of days in #4 was something that never happened before (since September 2020) to the social media giant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image10-5.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking to the top 10 list, it&#8217;s also clear that, just looking to social media domains, YouTube comes third and Twitter got a bump up and beat Instagram in 2021, getting the #5 place (barely, in what was a very close race). Back in late 2020 Twitter was behind Instagram in our ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LinkedIn is the ninth most popular social media domain in our ranking and is still in our top 100 and throughout 2021 it got higher in our list, especially in February and March. The social media for professionals then started to drop in June and July (in the Northern Hemisphere\u2019s summer), starting in late August to climb again and by November it reached the #52 place, the highest of the year in our global ranking \u2014 in January it was ~#78. In a year when terms like&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/web-summit-2021-internet\/\">The Great Resignation and the reset of people and organizations\u2019 mindsets<\/a>&nbsp;were talked about, it makes sense to see this social media platform growing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image18-3.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"streaming-the-squid-netflix-game-rules\">Streaming: The (Squid) Netflix Game rules<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The so-called video&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Streaming_media#Streaming_wars\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">streaming wars<\/a>&nbsp;got another important round in 2021 with new players appearing and old ones having amazing numbers \u2014 not only in subscribers, revenue, and content budgets but also in&#8230; Internet traffic. In our ranking, Netflix is still the undefeated hero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We added YouTube.com (its most important service is free) to the list to compare with the big numbers from Netflix, and still, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Squid_Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Squid Game phenomenon<\/a>&nbsp;platform won our ranking for most of the year. Amazon Prime is not included because the streaming service mainly uses Amazon.com (ranked #5 or #6 most of the year) as a domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The days of the year when Netflix was more popular? January was a great month with Netflix reaching the #4 spot in our global ranking in the first two days of the year (and also all the weekends of January, Fridays included), going through February in the #5 place. For the rest of 2021, the platform was mostly #7. Yes, on the weekends Netflix seems to have a better performance in our ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roku.com seems to be the next video streaming platform after those two traffic giants, getting around the #80 position in our ranking through 2021. In late 2020 Hulu.com was the next one, but HBOMax.com surpassed Hulu in July 2021 and entered our top 100 list. In 2021, Disneyplus.com also rose in our ranking and surpassed the app-based TV service Sling.com later in the year. Our top 10 chart also includes Iq.com (iQiyi), the Chinese online video platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-10-most-popular-video-streaming-domains-late-2021\">Top 10 \u2014 Most popular video streaming domains (late) 2021<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Netflix.com<br>2 YouTube.com<br>3 Roku.com<br>4 HBOMax.com<br>5 Hulu.com<br>6 Peacocktv.com<br>7 Disneyplus.co<br>8 ParamountPlus.com<br>9 Sling.com<br>10 Iq.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-10-most-popular-video-streaming-domains-late-2020\">Top 10 \u2014 Most popular video streaming domains (late) 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Netflix.com<br>2 YouTube.com<br>3 Roku.com<br>4 Hulu.com<br>5 HBOMax.com<br>6 Peacocktv.com<br>7 Sling.com<br>8 Disneyplus.com<br>9 Iq.com<br>10 Wetv.vip<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"netflix-vs-youtube\">Netflix vs YouTube<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image12-4.png\" alt=\"In the chart Netflix.com, more dominant in most days, is in pink and YouTube.com is in yellow\"\/><figcaption><em>In the chart Netflix.com, more dominant in most days, is in pink and YouTube.com is in yellow<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image14.png\" alt=\"Netflix and YouTube, but also Roku, HBOMax, Hulu.com and Peacocktv are a lot higher in our list than the others \u2014 Disney+ is getting there\"\/><figcaption><em>Netflix and YouTube, but also Roku, HBOMax, Hulu.com and Peacocktv are a lot higher in our list than the others \u2014 Disney+ is getting there<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"e-commerce-podium-to-amazon-taobao-and-ebay\">E-commerce: Podium to Amazon, Taobao and eBay<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the pandemic started e-commerce has continued to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/379046\/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">strive and grow<\/a>&nbsp;at an even faster pace than before. The top four e-commerce domains (Amazon, Taobao, eBay and Walmart) in our global ranking are all in the top 100 and that happens steadily throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fifth in the e-commerce list, the Chinese giant Jd.com had a few periods that it also entered the top 100 mainly in May and especially June \u2014 on the day of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/franklavin\/2021\/06\/21\/chinas-annual-618-shopping-event-shows-consumers-are-back\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">618 shopping event<\/a>, on June 18, 2021, it reached #68 on our list, beating Walmart.com and almost catching Ebay.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the following list it is easy to see that Jd.com surpassed Shopify.com in 2021, occupying the #5 place, and also Bestbuy.com and Target.com rose from one year to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-10-most-popular-e-commerce-domains-late-2021\">Top 10 \u2014 Most popular e-commerce domains (late) 2021<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Amazon.com<br>2 Taobao.com<br>3 Ebay.com<br>4 Walmart.com<br>5 Jd.com<br>6 Shopify.com<br>7 Bestbuy.com<br>8 Target.com<br>9 Rakuten.co.jp<br>10 Homedepot.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-10-most-popular-e-commerce-domains-late-2020\">Top 10 \u2014 Most popular e-commerce domains (late) 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Amazon.com<br>2 Taobao.com<br>3 Ebay.com<br>4 Walmart.com<br>5 Shopify.com<br>6 Jd.com<br>7 Olx.com.br<br>8 Rakuten.co.jp<br>9 Target.com<br>10 Bestbuy.com*<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><small><\/small><\/em><small>Shein.com went ahead of Bestbuy.com and Target.com from December 19 to 24, 2020<\/small>*<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image21.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are other trends:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Amazon.com is a domain, as we already explained, with more than e-commerce services (that\u2019s why globally it ranks between #4 and #6). In 2021, it had some good days in January and in late April 2021, reaching #4, but by the end of the year it got its best days in our ranking, especially on the day before Cyber Monday, November 28, and on December 1 and 6 \u2014 it reached #5.<\/li><li>Taobao.com had its best day of the year in our global ranking on August 20 \u2014 #15 \u2014 and by the popular Chinese shopping day, Singles&#8217; Day, November 11, it was #17.<\/li><li>Ebay.com had a solid year and a good late August (#29 on August 31) and grew more after Cyber Monday, peaking on December 1, reaching #27.<\/li><li>Shopify had a great August (reaching #100 on August 18), the same with Etsy.com that peaked at #128 on August 21. Walmart had a great June (#66) and also end of November (it reached #70).<\/li><li>Ikea.com had a big increase in importance throughout the year and got very near to Homedepot.com\u2019s position in September (peaked in the #695 position in our global ranking), staying up through November.<\/li><li>Best Buy peaked on October 6 and had a high growth throughout November, also matching Shopify in December.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image19.png\" alt=\"When we look to Shein.com we see that it peaked last Christmas and is on the rise since November 2021\"\/><figcaption><em>When we look to Shein.com we see that it peaked last Christmas and is on the rise since November 2021<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Shein.com, the global Chinese online fast-fashion retailer, went high in our ranking for the Christmas of 2020 \u2014 it went ahead of Bestbuy.com and Target.com from December 19 to 24, 2020, reaching the #253 position. In March, it had another peak, and it got the best position in 2021 in our ranking after Cyber Monday \u2014 it reached #301 on December 1, 2021.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image9-7.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"2021-a-space-odyssey-for-nasa-spacex-blue-origin-and-virgin-galactic-\">2021: A Space Odyssey (for NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This year was also a big year for space travel with several achievements. Spacecraft from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2021_in_spaceflight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">three Mars exploration<\/a>&nbsp;programs from the United Arab Emirates, China, and the United States arrived at Mars in February \u2014 NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover landed on February 18, 2021, and after that the Ingenuity drone made history, being the first powered aircraft flight on another planet in human history. And there is also another big space event just around the corner \u2014 the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_Webb_Space_Telescope\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">James Webb Telescope launch<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Virgin Galactic (July 11), Blue Origin (July 20) and SpaceX (September 16 \u2014 but with several other events before that regarding satellites and reuse of space capsules) also stormed the Internet with space tourism achievements with different scopes. Only SpaceX offered an orbital ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In terms of domains, NASA.gov was way ahead of the others, but Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX.com was definitely second in our global ranking, followed by Blueorigin.com. Virgingalactic.com only appears once in our top 100k ranking on July 17 and 18 (a few days after Richard Branson\u2019s spaceflight).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image13-1.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Since last year NASA is high on our global ranking, in the top 1,000 domains of our list, but after the rover Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18 NASA.gov entered our top 700 ranking \u2014 the highest day of that month was February 25, when it reached #657. In the summer it went down in our ranking, but it picked up in late September and on October 13, 2021, reached the highest position of the year (#637). That was the day the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nasa.gov\/lucy\/2021\/10\/13\/launch-readiness-review-completed-for-nasas-lucy-mission\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press conference<\/a>&nbsp;about NASA&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/press-release\/nasa-ula-launch-lucy-mission-to-fossils-of-planet-formation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lucy mission<\/a>, the agency\u2019s first to Jupiter\u2019s Trojan asteroids, took place (the launch was on October 16).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SpaceX.com had a great start of February, it entered our top 8,000, a month with a launch of 60 new Starlink internet satellites into orbit amidst a missed rocket landing and a fresh $850 million of new investment. And then it was after September 16, 2021, with the first orbital launch of an all-private crew,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Inspiration4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Inspiration4<\/a>, that it flew again in our ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Blue Origin, after a strong start of the year \u2014 it reached our #32,000 on January 10 (a few days before New Shepard 4\u2019s first test flight) \u2014 it went up between July 20- 27 after its first crewed flight, with Jeff Bezos onboard. It also went up in our ranking a few days after October 13, 2021 (the day William Shatner flew aboard a Blue Origin suborbital capsule).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"messaging-or-chat-whatsapp-what-else\">Messaging or chat: WhatsApp, what else?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There aren\u2019t as many messaging or chat platforms as there are popular social media sites, video streaming, or e-commerce platforms. So, this ranking is slim, and even slimmer because Messenger (uses Facebook.com) or iMessage (uses Apple.com) aren\u2019t included. Snapchat is both a social media platform and a messaging app \u2014 the same with Instagram \u2014 and we added them in the social media ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If they were here they would be higher than Telegram but behind WhatsApp \u2014 Instagram actually started 2021 (it got to #8) in front of WhatsApp until February and went as low as #13 and Snapchat went between #29 to #16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-most-popular-chat-domains-late-2021\">Top \u2014 Most popular chat domains (late) 2021<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 WhatsApp.com<br>2 Telegram.org<br>3 WeChat.com<br>4 Signal.org<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-most-popular-chat-domains-late-2020\">Top \u2014 Most popular chat domains (late) 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 WhatsApp.com<br>2 Telegram.org<br>3 Signal.org<br>4 WeChat.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From our standpoint, WhatsApp is the undisputed leader of the messaging apps ranging from as low as #13 in our global ranking to as high as #8. Its best parts of the year were late March, late April, late October and then late November going through December 2021 as #8 in our ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The only that is closer is Telegram.org, ranging from #170 to #88 (peaked in October 2021) throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/unnamed-35.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-signal-skyrocketed-in-january-and-wechat-in-february-\">How Signal skyrocketed in January (and WeChat in February)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>All the others are far away in our ranking, but 2021 brought three trends we should highlight:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Signal.org<\/strong>&nbsp;had an incredible month of January \u2014 on January 3 it was in #1815 in our ranking and by January 20 it rose to #766, a climb in more than 1,000 positions in just 17 days. Why?&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/1\/12\/22226792\/whatsapp-privacy-policy-response-signal-telegram-controversy-clarification\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WhatsApp&#8217;s new privacy policy<\/a>&nbsp;was in the headlines in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/1\/7\/22218989\/signal-new-signups-whatsapp-facebook-privacy-controversy-elon-musk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">second week of January<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/unnamed--1--20.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>WeChat.com&nbsp;<\/strong>also had an amazing jump in our ranking, but more in February and by April it surpassed Signal.org \u2014 it went from #3142 at the start of February to #979 by April 25 and by October both of the messaging apps were almost tied at ~#370 and had a significantly higher place in our ranking than in late 2020.&nbsp;<strong>Telegram.org<\/strong>&nbsp;on the other hand started the year on a high note, #107, and rose to #102 after the first week of January, but lost positions in our ranking after that. In August started to grow more to reach the #88 spot we already mentioned \u2014 by then, WhatsApp was #10 in our ranking.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><em>\u201cYou can&#8217;t just materialize anywhere in the Metaverse, like Captain Kirk beaming down from on high. This would be confusing and irritating to the people around you. It would break the metaphor. Materializing out of nowhere (or vanishing back into Reality) is considered to be a private function best done in the confines of your own House.\u201c<\/em><br>\u2015 Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash (1992)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"metaverse-don-t-mess-with-roblox\">Metaverse: Don\u2019t mess with Roblox<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in November, we heard in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/web-summit-2021-internet\/\">halls of Web Summit<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 the 42,000 in-person tech global event in Lisbon \u2014 that in a way the metaverse is already here (Roblox\u2019s Global Head of Music had some thoughts on virtual concerts). But we\u2019re still far from the promise of almost living in the virtual world that books like Neal Stephenson\u2019s Snow Crash or Ernest Cline\u2019s Ready Player One showed us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oculus&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/11\/16\/22785469\/meta-oculus-quest-2-10-million-units-sold-qualcomm-xr2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shipped<\/a>&nbsp;a lot of headsets and there are immersive experiences out there that are Metaverse-like (a step further than the now-usual-for-most spending all day working, learning, communicating through a screen) and we focused on that ones, like Fortnite, Roblox, Second Life (the oldest, from 2003), Minecraft and Oculus. But Oculus.com doesn\u2019t have enough direct traffic (playing games using Oculus headset could direct the traffic elsewhere) to be in our top 100k domains ranking, and the same happens with Minecraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-most-popular-metaverse-domains-late-2021\">Top \u2014 Most popular metaverse domains (late) 2021<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Roblox.com<br>2 Epicgames.com (Fortnite)<br>3 Secondlife.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><small>Oculus.com and Minecraft.net are not in our 100,000 ranking<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"top-most-popular-metaverse-domains-late-2020\">Top \u2014 Most popular metaverse domains (late) 2020<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>1 Epicgames.com (Fortnite)<br>2 Roblox.com<br>3 Secondlife.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><small>Oculus.com and Minecraft.net are not in our 100,000 ranking<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The (short) list from 2020 and 2021 shows us that Roblox.com surpassed Epicgames.com (the home of the popular Fortnite) for the first time in July reaching back then #27 in our list. But it was after late September that it was consistently in front of the rival game platform, ending the year on a good note reaching #20 in our ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/content\/images\/2021\/12\/image11-4.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Epicgames.com (Fortnite) started the year a lot better, reaching #14 on January 5, 2021, but it started to lose importance in February and that deepened after May, but mostly in July and August. It never truly recovered and ended the year between #26 and #47, depending on the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"conclusion-human-online-trends\">Conclusion: Human (online) trends<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Internet is not a quiet place, the same way humans on Earth (especially&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/cloudflare-radar-2020-year-in-review\/\">during a pandemic<\/a>) aren\u2019t quiet or passive but active and reactive. Although on the top of our domain ranking there don\u2019t seem to be drastic ups and downs throughout the year (TikTok, and YouTube, were the exceptions), we saw how an event like the Myanmar coup and the subsequent viral video may have brought YouTube to #1 on our ranking. We also saw how e-commerce was affected throughout the year, how space-related websites had a big (online) year with important events, and how Netflix rose around Christmas time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And remember: you can keep an eye on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/radar.cloudflare.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cloudflare Radar<\/a>&nbsp;to monitor how we see Internet traffic globally and in every country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(Update 12\/22\/2021: We have corrected the data about Telegram.org \u2014 the domain that was used initially wasn\u2019t the right one.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>source: https:\/\/blog.cloudflare.com\/popular-domains-year-in-review-2021\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Not only was Google replaced by TikTok as the most visited website, Facebook (a corporatist, politicized, disinformation\/ propaganda publisher hiding behind section 230 and misleading investors) was dethroned as the top social media site. This is accountability, and at least some has arrived in 2021. This is a huge deal, and this could be the &#8230; <a title=\"Big Tech, It&#8217;s Self Destructing, As Forecast\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/2021\/12\/26\/big-tech-its-self-destructing-as-forecast\/\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Big Tech, It&#8217;s Self Destructing, As Forecast<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","pmpro-has-access"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smashomash.com\/smashteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}