WordPress Powers One in Five Websites

WordPress Powers One in Five Websites

WordPress is on the cusp of powering a fifth of the world’s websites.

According to W3Tech’s latest Content Managements Systems Survey, WordPress is used by 19.9 per cent of all websites.

On January 1, WordPress recorded 17.4 per cent. The current figure is a 2.5 per cent jump in less than nine months.

W3Techs CMS Survey

WordPress is by and far the world’s most popular CMS. Joomla holds just 3.3 per cent of the market, Drupal is on 2 per cent and Blogger 1.2 per cent.

Despite WordPress’s popularity, a huge 65.9 per cent of all websites don’t use a CMS.

WordPress Traffic Surpasses Yahoo

The news comes as WordPress.com outranks Yahoo to become the 8th most visited website in the US.

The latest Quantcast Top Sites rankings reveal WordPress pulls in almost 73 million hits a month, with Yahoo trailing behind on about 70 million.

Mullenweg took to Twitter to announced the news:

Google tops the list with 195 million monthly visits, with YouTube second and Facebook in third place.

The list ranks websites based on the number of people in the US who visit each site within a month.

Tiger Buys Even More Automattic Stock

In other news, investment firm Tiger Global has led $75 million purchase of Automattic stock.

In May, Tiger snapped up $50 million worth of shares from existing shareholders, including some of the company’s early and loyal staff.

This time, Tiger has bought a $60 million secondary stake in the company behind WordPress.com. San Francisco-based investment company Iconiq Capital also picked up $15 million in shares.

Together, the firms bought most of a stake owned by Polaris Venture Partners, one of Automattic’s early venture capital backers.

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WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg posted on his personal blog that up until now Polaris had been Automattic’s largest investor and second largest shareholder.

Matt Mullenweg
WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg has announced Tiger Global has thrown another $50 million at Automattic.

“(Former Polaris partner) Mike Hirshland wrote the biggest checks in our 2006 and 2008 rounds (the only primary capital Automattic has raised) and served on our board until 2011 when he left the firm,” Mullenweg said.

“Although they’ll no longer be on the board, Polaris will continue to be a major shareholder, retaining about a third of their stake.

“Now that Automattic has been locked in as a win for their portfolio, I hope they’ll continue to be involved for many years to come.

“I’m glad to be even more fully aligned with Tiger. I think it says a lot to their excitement in the company that just a few months after joining the family and learning more about the company they significantly increased their stake, and at a significant bump in valuation.”

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mullenweg declined to share the company’s latest valuation, but said it was 25 per cent higher than the valuation of Tiger’s investment in May.

The week caps off a big year for Automattic. The company now has 200 employees after hiring 70 fresh faces this year. It also opened its first headquarters in San Francisco.

While Automattic remains a private company, Mullenweg told The WSJ he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of an an IPO.

“If we’re profitable and continue growing I think there are lots of options, going public is one of them,” he said.

Image credits: aubergene.

It's been a big week for WordPress. What do you think is in store for the future of WordPress? Tell us in the comments below.

Raelene Morey Raelene is the Founder of Words By Birds, a digital writing agency that works with startups, SaaS, B2B, and WordPress businesses on turning tech speak into words that convert. She was formerly the managing editor at WPMU DEV. A computer science grad turned newspaper journalist, when she’s not taming browser tabs, she likes brunching and bushwalking.