Worldometer
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Type of site | Real-time statistics |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 |
| Country of origin | United States of America |
| Founder(s) | Andrey Alimetov |
| Services | Statistics counters |
| Parent | Dadax Limited |
| Website | www |
Worldometer,[1] formerly Worldometers, is a reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics. It is owned and operated by a data company Dadax[2][failed verification][3] which generates revenue through online advertising.[4] It is available in 31 languages and covers subjects such as government, world population, economics, society, media, environment, food and water, energy, and health.[5]
In early 2020, the website attained greater popularity due to hosting statistics relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
History
The website was founded by Andrey Alimetov, a Russian immigrant to the United States, in 2004.[6][7] In 2011, it was voted as one of the best free reference websites by the American Library Association.[5]
This site changed its name from "Worldometers" to "Worldometer" in January 2020 and announced that it would migrate to the singular domain name.[1][6]
COVID-19 pandemic
In early 2020, the website gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. It came under cyber attack in March 2020. The site was hit with a DDoS attack, and was then hacked a few days later, resulting in incorrect information being shown on its COVID-19 statistics page for approximately 20 minutes. The hacked site showed a dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases in Vatican City, which caused panic among some users of social media.[8] The Spanish government used its figures to claim that it had carried out more tests than all but four other countries.[6] Worldometers' COVID-19 figures have also been cited by Financial Times, The New York Times , The Washington Post , CNN, and Rede Globo.
Worldometer has faced some criticism over transparency of ownership, lack of citations to data sources, and unreliability of its COVID-19 statistics and live rankings.[6]
In April 2020, editors of the English Wikipedia decided that Worldometer's COVID-19 figures are often unreliable and should not be cited in any pages related to the pandemic.[6][7]
Reception
Edouard Mathieu, the data manager of Our World in Data, stated that "Their main focus seems to be having the latest number [of COVID-19 cases] wherever it comes from, whether it's reliable or not, whether it's well-sourced or not."[6]
Virginia Pitzer, a Yale University epidemiologist, said that the site is "legitimate", but flawed, inconsistent, and containing errors.[6]
According to Axios, at the peak of user interest,[9] the website was the #28 most visited website in the world in April 2020. A plurality (25.8%) of visitors came from the United States, followed by Japan (17.9%), India (8.67%), the United Kingdom (6.6%), South Korea (5.8%), Canada (5.18%), Germany (3.13%), Australia (2.49%), Poland (2.18%), France (1.73%), Turkey (1.66%), Brazil (1.65%) and Argentina (1.52%).[10]
By March 2023, according to traffic data from Similarweb, Worldometer had dropped to the 5,963rd global place.[11]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "FAQ: Is it 'Worldometer' or 'Worldometers' (with a final 's')?". https://www.worldometers.info/faq/#content-icon-v2-left-4c.
- ↑ "Worldometer – About us". https://www.worldometers.info/about/.
- ↑ "Who is Dadax (Worldometer)". March 30, 2020. http://www.dadax.com/.
- ↑ "Site of the week: Worldometers". Toronto Star. July 12, 2014. https://www.pressreader.com/canada/toronto-star/20140712/283729837399064.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Worldometers – real time statistics | Blog | National Library of New Zealand". https://natlib.govt.nz/blog/posts/worldometers-real-time-statistics.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Scott McLean; Laura Perez Maestro; Sergio Hernandez; Gianluca Mezzofiore; Katie Polglase (May 19, 2020). "The Covid-19 pandemic has catapulted one mysterious data website to prominence, sowing confusion in international rankings". CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/05/world/worldometer-coronavirus-mystery/index.html.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Dyer, Henry (May 7, 2020). "The story of Worldometer, the quick project that became one of the most popular sites on the internet" (in en). New Statesman. https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/coronavirus/2020/05/story-worldometer-quick-project-became-one-most-popular-sites.
- ↑ "Updates tracking website Worldometers hit by cyber attack". March 16, 2020. https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2020/03/16/false-report-of-900k-dead-in-vatican-city-last-night-i-nearly-fell-off-my-chair-reading-it/.
- ↑ "Google Trends" (in fr). https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=Worldometer&hl=fr.
- ↑ Fischer, Sara (May 12, 2020). "Statistics website Worldometer sees unprecedented online traffic amid coronavirus" (in en). Axios. https://www.axios.com/worldometer-coronavirus-78664b26-5cfd-4887-a8e6-2eda0db7daa7.html.
- ↑ "worldometers.info Traffic Analysis & Market Share | Similarweb". 2023-04-17. https://www.similarweb.com/website/worldometers.info/#overview.
External links
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