Content Management System (CMS) Market Share for Blogging

Last year I published a blog post regarding the search behaviour in a selection of CMS'. As I have recently made the move to Blogger, I felt it was a good time to re-visit the topic and analyse the latest trends in search. To my surprise there have been some dramatic changes over the past twelve months, therefore it was only right to go right back to the beginning and re-write a previous post.

The Content Management Systems in question

I have decided to look at three CMS' that I have had experience with in the past. Each has powered my personal blog (all on more than one occasion). I've got no reason to criticise any and would highly recommend them.

Wordpress

Launched in mid-2003 by Automattic, Wordpress is by far the largest of the three CMS' that I've looked at today. This Open Source CMS is offered as both a self-hosting tool or a weblog host and used by some of the largest companies in the world including many Fortune 500 websites.

Tumblr

The youngest of the three, Tumblr is also the smallest with just 12 employees! Founded in 2007 by 24 year old David Karp, Tumblr brought to the world an innovative way of micro-blogging but with the functionality that fight amongst the big guns.

Blogger

And finally, the Google-owned Blogger (which is by far the oldest of the three) launched in 1999! Built by Pyra Labs, it was acquired by Google in 2003 for an undisclosed fee. Blogger is also the system that powers my very own blog.

Growth since 2004

The following graphs look at the trends over the past few years on a weekly basis; split by World, US and UK market share. Please note that when I refer to market share I am looking at search trends based on exact match brands, i.e. [wordpress], [tumblr] and [blogger]. It is not an accurate look at overall share but is a good indication of search behaviours and brand recognition.

The x-axis on the graphs below is translated as 100 being the highest volume week for that given search term.

Worldwide trend

The above chart shows the search trends on Google Worldwide. It clearly shows the consistent growth of Wordpress since it's launch, having taken over Blogger in January 2007 three and a half years after launch.

But more impressive is the dramatic take up in the ever popular Tumblr which in under just three years (August 2010) it has surpassed Blogger in Worldwide search.

US trend

The US graph tells a completely different story where not only did Tumblr surpass Blogger four months earlier but also continued from strength to strength by going top of the chart by August 2010! To make it even more impressive is the trend it's making in recent weeks.

UK trend

Very similar to the US, the UK tends to follow a very similar trend line having seen Tumblr take over Blogger a month later than the US. It also took just a few months longer for Wordpress to lose its dominance.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a simply blogging system then any of the three is far more than capable to meet your needs. But it just goes to show how quickly things can change online and I'm sure it won't be long before Tumblr is fighting off new competition.