Medium (Website)

About

Medium is a blogging platform that launched in 2012. The website has been used by both amateur and professional writers and has emerged as one of the most popular blogging platforms of the late 2010s.

History

Launched in 2012 by Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone, Tumblr aimed to give users more space to express themselves, differentiating itself from the microblogging site Twitter.^[1]

Over the next few years, the site would work to grow not just webtraffic, but more specifically the number of hours that people spent on the site. In 2015, Williams reported that users spent 1.5 million hours reading Medium.^[2]

Features

Unlike other micro-blogging websites, Medium offers a full-range of publishing tools without the character restrictions. Unlike other blogging or social media platforms, Medium tags articles by topic, not writer. Once logged into the site, visitors can navigate the site by popular articles or a range of topics. The site also has a search feature.

As oppose to "likes" or "favorites" as a means for readers to react to articles, Medium uses a system known as "Claps." These "Claps" allow for a particular piece to rise invisibility on the site.

Additionally, users can also subscribe to Medium, giving them access to exclusive content. The price of the membership is $5 per month or $50 annually.

Highlights

In December 2016, Venture Beat^[3] reported that Medium grew 140%, reaching 60 million visitors. Additionally, the website had more than 7.5 million articles published, an increase of more than 5.5 million posts from the year prior.^[4]

On June 15th, 2018, Zat Rana published the post with the most claps as of December 2019. The article "The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You" received more than 294,000 claps.^[5]

Search Interest

External References