An absolute ton of Reddit users browse the site via apps too. Something to keep in mind.

I still agree that Facebook is larger though.

I don't know the usage stats, but I think the app/website ratio is nowhere near the one of facebook. Some probable reasons for this (unbacked) claim:

1) Long sessions are more suitable on a laptop/desktop than on a smartphone (the average session time is ~15mn).

2) There is still a nerdy userbase (mostly early users) who prefer to use the website with all the features.

3) The app is relatively recent (April 2016 vs 2012 for Facebook).

4) The official app is not really good IMO (e.g. scrolling is laggy and the UI could be better).

Nobody uses the official reddit apps. I've been using third party reddit apps (which are amazing) since 2010 (Galaxy S1).

They push it on their mobile site to anyone who visits, so I wouldn't say "nobody". I use it

Well I use the official app. I tried redditisfun but it was pretty much the same. Do you suggest any other app?

Apollo is brilliant for iOS users.

https://apolloapp.io/

Been using it since release and I don't use the Reddit website directly now except to give gold.

Relay is quite good, I have (shamefully) used it for hour-long browsing sessions.

I'll second this. I've tried other ones but I always end up coming back to Relay.

On android, previously I used RedReader but I have since switched to Slide https://github.com/ccrama/Slide/ (available on Fdroid).

It has a nice UI and a lot of neat features.

Check out Sync for reddit for Android [0] and iOS (Beta) [1]

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.laurenceda...

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/sync_ios/

RedReader is great and open source.

Well, I would say that your #1 reason is quite untrue. I can't speak for everyone, but I rarely browse Reddit on a computer. The only reason to do so is because I want to write a long response. Normally I'm browsing from an app so I can lay on the couch and watch TV while I'm doing it.

#2 could be true, but it might not be.

Regarding the apps, I paid for BaconReader on Android over 6 years ago and still use it. It works fine for me. I have no desire to switch to the official app.

As a moderator of a decent-sized subreddit, the number of people who complain they weren't aware of our rules because they use a mobile client (that makes it impossible to view the sidebar, where the rules are mentioned) suggests to me there's a ton of mobile users you're discounting.

Re: 3)

Official app on iOS used to be a third party app called Alien Blue. Reddit basically purchased it, re-branded it as official, and viola. On iOS it had tons of usage prior to that. Incidentally after the rebranding is when I stopped using it and moved to Apollo.

Reddit acquired AlienBlue and re-released the client as their official app in 2014.

People who visit reddit regualry have most probably some client on their mobile.

You're just pulling these points out of thin air.

While this maybe true, none of what you mention has changed recently but this ranking did. This ranking change at least points to a trend. Maybe the percentage of mobile use is increasing at faster rate on FB vs Reddit, recently. But according to the nextweb link someone shared in this thread, FB had nearly 90% of their traffic via mobile already in 2016.

what changed recently: craigslist and all other sex classifieds closing because of new US legislation and camwhoring going mainstream.

both of those thing converged into reddit.

Remember when people thought Facebook wasn't going to be able to pivot to mobile ads and make money there?

It's quite possible that Reddit has many more mobile users than desktop users, but I can't say whether the official app is the most-used of the bunch

Thanks for noting this, as I am not a reddit or facebook user, the headline and alexa page said nothing of actual usage trends.

plus a lot of Facebook users concerned about their privacy installed some third party script blockers. They are probably now below Alexa's radar

I would hazard a guess that percentage-wise more of Reddit's users are savvy enough to install script blockers than Facebook users are.

There's no way this amount to a significant number.

> Most Facebook users use the app, not the website

Source?

"90% of Facebook’s daily active users access it via mobile" - https://thenextweb.com/facebook/2016/01/27/90-of-facebooks-d...

And before you suggest that those users might still be using it on desktop more than on mobile:

"Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 91% of advertising revenue for the first quarter of 2018, up from approximately 85% of advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2017." - https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/...

That doesn't say whether they are using an app on mobile or just a mobile browser. The app is (was? I haven't used it in ages) a notorious energy-hog that will drain your battery.

Unfortunately I can't find numbers that break down mobile site vs. native app use.

Judging by how poorly maintained and how rarely updated the mobile site is, I think it's safe to assume that the vast majority of people are using the native apps, not the mobile site. Major features like the marketplace and video tabs are nowhere to be seen on the mobile site, for example. If the mobile sites were getting the bulk of users, Facebook would surely prioritize it.

I don't think that's safe to assume at all. A lot of phone users (think mostly older people) still don't really know what an app store is. I don't have any numbers, but from seeing how 'ordinary' people use their phones, I wouldn't make any assumptions about preferring apps.

As for facebook's priorities - they could surely also be neglecting the mobile site with the aim of getting people to install and use their app. Again, I don't know if this is the case, but it's certainly plausible.

I think that might have been true in 2009. It's far from true today.

I just noticed this FB blog post: https://developers.facebook.com/ads/blog/post/2018/05/09/rel.... The chart at the top shows app vs. web use of mobile devices, not just for FB but overall. As I expected, mobile web is significantly smaller than native apps, from a time-spent standpoint.

Agreed. I haven't used the app in years. Instead I use mbasic.facebook.com. When I check the demographics Facebook puts me in for advertisers, I'm categorized as a "mobile user".

I agree. The amount of the network, data center engineering resources between facebook and reddit aren't even on the same magnitude.

That's not really comparable. Facebook needs much more computation while reddit is basically just a database full of text.

Each user has their own view of the frontpage though, which is computationally pretty expensive. Trees of comments similarly can get data heavy. Hard to compare IMO