14 DAY TRIAL // Disqus is completely dominating the third-party commenting system market. A recent study, coupled with official numbers released by the company, show constant growth and a solid market position for the San Francisco-based company.
Disqus is a remote, third-party service for embedding a commenting system on any website.
It can be used with static websites, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, Drupal, Joomla, MovableType, various wikis and a whole lot of other services.
The service launched in 2007 and it immediately took off, currently being used by important websites like TechCrunch, Engadget, IGN, FOX News, CNN, ReadWriteWeb, Time Magazine, NASDAQ, Wired, PCMag and a whole lot more.
This growth was highlighted in a Lijit study from March 2011, which revealed that 75% of all websites using a third-party commenting systems use Disqus as their primary commenting service.
With its four years anniversary this week, the staff blogged about some of its main accomplishments in its short lifespan.
The main number in all statistics was 500. Across its most important metrics, traffic, communities and users, the company saw a 500% growth during the last year.
Disqus is now handling over 200 million unique hits per month, and slowly but surely approaching 500 million in that category as well.
In terms of people actually using the service, its member base can be organized in two categories: website owners, which embed Disqus' service on their own websites, and ordinary Disqus users, people who register and post comments through Disqus.
The company reports that 750,000 websites currently use Disqus, and 35 million regular users have posted their feedback through it.
Now imagine that all this traffic and data is only managed by a handful of people. Sixteen to be more exact, and not all of them work as developers.
The company hasn't expanded that much in the personnel department, but it recently secured a $10 million round from investors including North Bridge and Union Square Ventures, which will surely allow it to dream big and expand some of its features.
This also means new jobs, so it will also be a good idea to keep an eye on the Disqus job board in the coming months.