ShareThis Releases the Social Engagement of Sharing

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - December 16, 2009) - Today, ShareThis, the world's largest sharing network, announced new data revealing the true value of shared content and how people engage with and spread shared information. Sharing can drive up to one-third the traffic that search does, and surprising to most publishers, email continues to be the primary channel chosen to share content and also maintains a high level of engagement with those who receive the content. As sharing increasingly becomes the center of social activity on the Web, it will be essential for publishers to understand how and why people share in order to maximize traffic, ad revenue and engagement.

The mass production of digital content today is outpacing people's capacity to absorb it, process and learn from it, and this inflation is causing the value of all content to decline. With the promotion of sharing, ShareThis is changing the economics of online publishing by creating a market for influence across the Web. This new economy addresses the commoditization of content by quickly identifying the most valuable content -- the things people share. The act of sharing makes content worth reading, reacting to and worth knowing. With more than 200 million monthly unique visitors (comScore) in its network across more than 125,000 websites, ShareThis is the only company able to measure and quantify the comprehensive value of sharing.

With shares per page view continuing to rise in 2009 -- growing 200 percent since this time last year -- publishers will need to understand how people share and what happens after they do. ShareThis data shows that people still prefer to share content via email and that recipients are more engaged when receiving shares through email. Social channels such as Twitter have high click-through rates, but have relatively low amounts of shares and those who do click through spend very little time with the actual content:

--  Forty-six percent of users share content via email compared to 33.32
    percent via Facebook, 14.47 percent via other channels and only 5.82
    percent via Twitter;
--  Of content shared, 40.1 percent of clicks come from shared articles on
    Twitter, 35.2 percent of clicks come from email and other social channels,
    and 24.6 percent of clicks come from Facebook;
--  However, once they have clicked through, Twitter has a lower level of
    engagement at 1.66 page views per unique click, with email maintaining the
    highest engagement at 2.95 page views, followed by Facebook with 2.76 page
    views.
    

"As a publisher in today's online media world it is a huge priority for us to very intimately understand all the traffic that comes to our site, to ensure that we are maximizing our users' experience," said Daniel Mandell, Director of Business Development, US Weekly. "Sharing through email and social channels is driving more and more readers, and is an increasingly popular way to interact with our content. Not only does ShareThis facilitate this growth, they provide us with valuable and actionable insights -- beyond the simple fact that our users are sharing -- into how and what they are sharing and the impact their shares have on others."

"Sharing is valuable because everybody does it," said Tim Schigel, CEO, ShareThis. "People have always looked to those they know to find the information they care about and it is changing the way everyone interacts with content. With such large amounts of digital content being produced, it is impossible to absorb it without some kind of filter, so naturally, people are using friends, family and colleagues as that filter and all of a sudden everyone is an influencer. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for everyone to share the information they want, while simultaneously helping publishers benefit from these interactions by identifying what content is of most importance to their readers."

About ShareThis

ShareThis is the world's largest sharing network. It makes it easy to share ideas and get to the good stuff online. ShareThis is changing the economics of online publishing by creating a market of influence across the Web. ShareThis allows users to share content from anywhere to anyone, all without ever leaving the current page. ShareThis gives publishers the ability to increase the value of sharing and understand their influencers. Based in Mountain View, CA, the company is privately held with funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Blue Chip Venture Company, DFJ Mercury, Reservoir Partners, Illinois Ventures, Queen City Angels and RPM Ventures.

Contact Information: Media Contacts: Corey Lewis or Virginia Zimpel LaunchSquad sharethis(at)launchsquad(dot)com +1 415 625 8555