65 Useful Content Moderation Stats You Need to Know

Users’ expectations are at an all-time high, and losing your customers to your competition is out of the question. Platforms need to do everything they can to ensure a seamless and safe experience on their site. That’s why content moderation has never been more vital to gain and retaining customers.

Browsing the web for content moderation statistics? Look no further. We have compiled a list of 65 statistics about the landscape of content moderation, from user experience to customer service or stats relating to your specific industry.

• User Experience
• Reviews
• Dating
• Sharing economy
• Online marketplaces
• Customer service
• Scams
• Online harassment

User Experience

Online shoppers have no time to waste. They are expecting to find what they are looking for instantly. Competing for users’ attention is a tricky business. Only one negative experience can send your users away, seeking a better place to shop from.

Categorization, smooth navigation, good searchability, and no duplicates play a key role in creating a seamless experience to win customers and keep them coming back.

• First impressions are 94% design-related. – Research Gate
• A study shows that 60% of consumers start their research on a search engine before visiting a specific website. – MineWhat.com on Adweek
• When they visited a mobile-friendly site, 74% of people say they’re more likely to return to that site in the future. – Think with Google
• 42% of shoppers abandon an online purchase because of limited product information. – Biz report
• Around 87% of online shoppers abandon their carts during the checkout if the process is too long or complicated. – Splitit
• The average cart abandonment rate at 69.5 percent in 2019. – Statista
• 55% of website visitors spend less than 15 seconds actively reading. – FreelancingGig
• 53% of mobile site visits leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load. – Think with Google
• Slow-loading sites increase the abandonment rate by 79.17%. – SaleCycle
• 30 % of shoppers say that the loading time of a website is the most important feature. Magento Commerce report
• 100% of the participants found irrelevant items in their search results. Besedo user search study

Reviews

Reviews can make or break your business, with customers relying more and more on reviews to buy products or services (and even trusting fellow online reviewers as much as their friends and family) genuine user reviews are an excellent way for users to gain trust in your platform.

However, fake reviews multiply quickly online, which could erode the trust needed to convert buyers. So, how can you prevent fake reviews on your site? Setting up a reliable content moderation process is your best bet to protect your site. Find out more about tackling fake reviews here.

• 82% of consumers have read a fake review in the last year. – Bright Local
• 85% of consumers are willing to leave reviews. – Bright Local
• More than 8 in 10 say user-generated content from people they don’t know influences what they buy and indicates brand quality. – Hubspot
• 76% trust online reviews as much as recommendations from family and friends. – Bright Local
• 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. – Bright Local
• 73% of Millennials say that consumers care more about customer opinions than companies themselves do. – Hubspot
• 93% of consumers say that user-generated content can help them make purchasing decisions. – Adweek
• Around 30 percent of online consumers said they posted product feedback online, and, in Asia, consumers were nearly 50 percent more likely than average to post a review. – KPMG
• 90% of customers are influenced by positive reviews when buying a product. – Zendesk

Dating

Heterosexual couples are more likely to meet a romantic partner online than through personal contacts and connections, according to a recent study. The dating industry is booming, yet it is still facing countless challenges: rude messages, inappropriate images, and in the worst of cases, sexual harassment.

You need to handle these threats with an effective content moderation strategy to succeed in the business. The following online dating stats will give you a better idea of the challenges to be faced head-on.

• 41% said of participants to a study said they are afraid of dating scams. – MeasuringU
• 51% of women say safety was a concern when meeting with people resulting from a match on a dating app. – Once survey
• 42% of women reported being “contacted by someone through an online dating site or app in a way that made them feel harassed or uncomfortable. – Pew Research
• Nearly 40% of people surveyed have “swipe fatigue” because these apps are superficial, geared towards casual relationships, and don’t have good safety features. – Once survey
• 34% of participants have been contacted in a way that made them uncomfortable. – Statista
• Around the world, 600 million singles have access to the Internet. 400 million of these have never used a dating app. – TechCrunch
• 82% say they would feel more secure using a dating app with public ratings. – Once survey

Sharing economy

The sharing economy is forging its way into all industries, from the gig economy to transportation or housing, and no sector will be left untouched in the future. Yet, the sharing industry comes with its own set of challenges, privacy and safety being the two leading causes of concern.

• The number of sharing economy users is set to reach 86.5 million in the U.S. in 2021. – Statista
• Fears’ consumers addressed issues of value and quality, articulated as concerns about “sharing not being worth the effort” (12 percent), “goods/services being of poor quality” (12 percent) and “other factors” (9 percent). – Campbell Mithun and Carbonview
• 67% of consumers’ fears about the sharing economy are related to trust. – Campbell Mithun and Carbonview
• In a 2017 survey, 36 percent of the respondents said privacy concerns were a reason not to use Airbnb, and 13 percent stated safety concerns as a reason not to use the app. – Statista
• Over the past five years, the Car Sharing Providers industry has grown by 8.9% to reach revenue of $1bn in 2019. – Ibis World
• McKinsey estimates that in the U.S. and Europe alone, 162 million people, or 20-30 percent of the workforce, are providers of sharing platforms. – McKinsey

Online marketplaces

With conscious consumerism on the rise, online marketplaces are trendier daily. But in this competitive environment, online marketplaces need to set themselves apart. Optimizing your platform’s experience is necessary if you wish to stay in the race.

• Marketplaces generate significant revenue, with two-thirds generating more than $50 million annually and one-third generating $100 million or more. – Altimeter
• 21x, that’s how much faster resale has grown over retail over the past three years. – ThredUp
• The biggest reason buyers leave marketplaces is the lack of sellers who meet their needs (53%). – Altimeter
• By 2021, 53.9% of all U.S. retail eCommerce is expected to be generated through mobile commerce. – Statista
• 56% of consumers would buy more from off-price retailers if they offered secondhand apparel, and one-third said the same was true of fast-fashion retailers. – ThredUp
• The digital classifieds ad revenue in the U.S. grew by 8.3 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year. – Statista
• Nearly half (48 percent) of online shoppers head straight to a large eCommerce marketplace.  – Big-commerce and Square study
• Only 20% would buy the product in an ad with a poor description and 73% were unlikely to return to the site. Compared to 56% and 37% for a good listing. Besedo user search study

Customer service

Customer service has become progressively more important for customers in the past few years. Have a look at the following statistics to help you improve your customer service and become their preferred platform.

• According to a survey by Customer Care Measurement and Consulting, the Carey School of Business at the Arizona State University, over three-quarters of complaining consumers were less than satisfied with their experience with the given company’s customer service department. – Customer Care Measurement and Consulting
• 63% of customers are happy to be served by a chatbot if there is an option to escalate the conversation to a human. – Forrester
• 73% say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good online customer service. – Forrester
• 95% of customers tell others about a bad experience, and 87% share good experiences. – Zendesk
• 90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as essential when they have a customer service question. 60% of customers define “immediate” as 10 minutes or less. – HubSpot Research
• Investing in new customers is 5 and 25 times more expensive than retaining existing ones. – Invesp

Scams

Scams can be found everywhere, and because of their sophistication level can be hard to detect or get rid of. Still, scams hurt businesses and drive user trust away. Check out our blog post on the 5 common online marketplace scams to see how you can fight back.

• Fifty-five percent of businesses surveyed reported increased online fraud-related losses over the past 12 months. – Experian
• 75% who saw a scam on a site would not return. – Besedo user search study
• Only half of companies believe that they have a high level of understanding about how fraud affects their business. – Experian
• 27% abandoned a transaction due to a lack of visible security. – Experian
• Nearly 1.5 million phishing sites are created each month. – Dashlane blog
• The median individual loss to a romance scam reported in 2018 was $2,600, about seven times higher than the median loss across all other fraud types. – FTC
• 74% of consumers see security as the most important element of their online experience, followed by convenience. – Experian
• 43.19% of the first page results for Gucci bag were counterfeits. Besedo mystery shopping study
• Nearly 60 percent of consumers worldwide have experienced online fraud at some point. – Experian
• In Australia, reports for financial losses due to scams reached 16.9% in December 2019 compared to 7.8% in December 2018. – Scamwatch
• In Australia, investment scams are the top scam in terms of losses followed by dating ones. – Scamwatch
• In our study, 50% of participants encountered something they thought was a scam. – Besedo user search study

Online harassment

Online harassment is a plague with dire consequences. Get to know the following stats to better your content moderation and fight back on online harassment.

• 1 in 2 young people reported having experienced online bullying before the age of 25. – Universities U.K.
• 41% of American adults have experienced online harassment, and 66% of adults have witnessed at least one harassing behavior online. – Pew Research
• 62% of U.K. youth participants reported they had received nasty private messages via social media, of which 42% were hate-based comments on race, sexuality, or gender identity. – Universities U.K.
• More than a tenth of Americans have experienced mental or emotional stress (and 8% have experienced problems with friends and family) due to online harassment. – Pew Research
• 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men had experienced some form of sexual harassment during their lifetime. – GfK

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