If anyone wants to take this data and present it in a different or better way, go ahead, but just give me credit and link back here.
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Popular Internet legend states that most if not all memes are created on 4chan, spread to sites like Reddit and Tumblr which run them into the ground (we help too), and are sent to die on sites like Facebook, 9gag, and iFunny. However, anyone with knowledge of even a few memes' origins will likely find this to be untrue most of the time. I'm aware that many memes don't in fact come from 4chan, but I've also wanted statistics to see just how everything ranks up. So, I started this project of going through every confirmed entry on KYM (including sites, people, events, and subcultures) and recording the sites that made them memes and the years they began (pre-1990 as one category, and every year from 1990 to 2016). If you want a professional yet less thorough version of this study, this Vocativ article yields similar results to mine.
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The study has not been perfect, however. Here are some disclaimers, issues I've had with collecting the data, and some problems with interpreting it:
1. I didn't go by the years and sites of origin listed at the top of each entry page, as they're often inaccurate or inconsistent with my methodology. I went with what site I felt "made it a meme" and the year that it "took off".
2. The largest site category by far is "other, unknown, and misc. media" due to its catch-all nature. For an entry to be in this category, it must either have an unknown site of origin, come from a site with less than 5 entries (according to my data), come straight from a media source with no main online catalyst, be a real life subject or event unconnected to a site, or be a slang term that started offline.
3. I went with the site I felt "made" an entry a meme, which is not always the site that first used it. This is often difficult to discern as some memes appeared on many different sites in their earliest days. Some also developed in stages from site to site. If the confusion was too great or its infancy too murky, it probably went into the "other" category.
4. To decide which year a meme "took off", I looked at both what's written in the entry and the Google Trends graphs of relevant search terms for the entry (as well as research of my own if neither sufficed). However, the Google Trends graphs for some terms showed a gradual rise, making it difficult to narrow down to a year. If it is too unknown in its history, its year was listed as "unknown" (or "pre-1990" if it's known to come from before then). Also, if a meme began or "took off" in late December of a year, I counted it for the next year.
5. Since this study only looks at what's confirmed on this site, it can't account for entries that are still submissions, ones that are deadpooled (which sometimes later become legit entries), or memes that don't have an entry yet (if they ever will). With this in mind, it may be more of a study on KYM's body of work than of meme history in general. Also, memes from recent years are underrepresented as their entries are less likely to be confirmed or even written yet.
6. Because of all the entries with unknown years and/or sites of origin, every total should be taken with a grain of salt, as its "true" number (impossible to know) is likely higher. There's no telling how different these data would be if all unknowns were known.
7. This study only looks at the number of memes that sites and years have (each entry counting as 1), not the significance of those memes. A site or year could have memes that are the most important, but not seem so because another site or year has a greater number of memes.
8. At the end of gathering data, I calculated exactly how many confirmed entries there were at the time (2676), but my total fell slightly short due to human error. I added the remainders to the "unknown year" section of the "other, unknown, and misc. media" category. This study was already not watertight, so there's a little less watertight-ness.
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So without further ado, here's what I've come up with!
Here's a Google spreadsheet of the raw data produced in this study (which I will be keeping up with for future updates). Below is a screenshot mirror in case something happens to the link.
Site ranks:
1. YouTube: 351 (13.17%)
2. 4chan: 325……………………….. (12.14%)
3. Reddit: 175………………………. (6.54%)
4. Tumblr: 138……………………… (5.16%)
5. Twitter: 67………………………… (2.50%)
6. YTMND: 65………………………. (2.43%)
7. Niconico / Nico Nico Douga: 56 (2.09%)
8. Something Awful: 40…………… (1.49%)
9. Facebook: 37……………………. (1.38%)
10. 2channel: 19……………………. (0.71%)
11. Vine: 17………………………….. (0.64%)
12. DeviantArt: 15………………….. (0.56%)
12. Newgrounds: 15……………….. (0.56%)
14. 2chan / Futaba Channel: 13… (0.49%)
15. FunnyJunk: 12…………………. (0.45%)
16. Instagram: 9……………………. (0.34%)
17. Usenet: 8……………………….. (0.30%)
18. Flickr: 7…………………………. (0.26%)
19. Bodybuilding.com: 6…………. (0.22%)
19. FanFiction.net: 6……………… (0.22%)
19. Myspace: 6…………………….. (0.22%)
22. Google: 5……………………….. (0.19%)
22. Krautchan: 5…………………… (0.19%)
22. LiveJournal: 5…………………. (0.19%)
22. Pixiv: 5…………………………. (0.19%)
22. Twitch: 5……………………….. (0.19%)
27. Other, unknown, & misc. media: 1264 (47.23%)
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Observations, interpretations, and conclusions:
1. YouTube and 4chan are by far the 2 biggest meme-producing sites (both about twice as many as Reddit at #3), but their closeness (351 vs. 325) makes it debatable which site is really #1. I think that if all the unknown entries became known, many would go to 4chan, placing it at #1, while few would go to YouTube, since most YouTube memes are known to come from videos on the site.
2. It's clear that Reddit and Tumblr are the 3rd and 4th top sites (possibly the other way around), but the rest of them are so close and low that it's up in the air.
3. Of all traditional, mainstream social media sites and apps, Twitter is #5 with 67, followed by Facebook at #9 with 37, Vine at #11 with 17, Instagram at #16 with 9, and finally Myspace tied for #19 with 6.
4. More memes originated in 2011 than any other year (including the "pre-1990" and "unknown" categories). In fact, just over half of all memes have been made since 2009.
5. The biggest meme-producing year for any site (excluding the "unknown" year category and "other, unknown, and misc. media" site category) is 2011 Reddit with 76, mostly because of Advice Animals.
6. The origin sites listed under the entry search page filters, in order, are YouTube, 4chan, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter. This translates to ranks #1, 2, 9, 4, 3, and 5. Sites ranked #6-8 are not present in this filter (YTMND, Niconico, and Something Awful).
7. 79 memes are from before 1990, the '90s had 125, the '00s had 1053, and the '10s have had 1217.
8. 2channel has had the longest meme-producing lifespan: 16/17 years from 1999 to 2015.
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Again, feel free to make some better looking charts and graphs as long as you credit me. I hope this was interesting and informative!
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