Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and the surest way to Internet traffic.
PlayBuzz, an Israeli knockoff of viral media giant BuzzFeed, has become one of the most popular media publishers on Facebook, according to data released by NewsWhip.
The site, which looks very similar to BuzzFeed, right down to the cats, launched in December and has quickly gained traction. While it still trails BuzzFeed, which logged more than 7 million shares in June, it has crept up behind Upworthy with just over 2 million shares.
"PlayBuzz have scored possibly the fastest ascension to the upper reaches of the Facebook rankings, with a phenomenally low content output – less than 100 stories last month," NewsWhip said in a blog post. "While we saw some decline in the popularity of interactive quizzes for sites last month, PlayBuzz’s audience seems not to mind – a ‘What Is Your Native American Name?‘ quiz racked up over 650,000 interactions in June alone."
Facebook has become a crucial platform for publishers as the social network has begun to drive major traffic to content producers that appear on Newsfeeds.
BuzzFeed has publicly discussed how Facebook has been a crucial part of its success, with a late 2013 bump helping to push the site past the 130 million unique visitor mark in November.
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