

Vube: 14.5M uniques in USA? #71 site in the world? Stats manipulation? - notlisted

I check the Alexa top sites index once in a while to discover newly booming sites. Yesterday I came across Vube.com, which is presently listed on Alexa as the #133 site in the US, and #71 site in the world. Surprising, since I&#x27;d never heard of them. Compete states 14.5MM monthly users in the USA.<p>Vube is a song cover contest site which lists videos, allows users to vote, and awards prizes to the winners.<p>Video view counts shown are through the roof (millions), even for videos that were posted 2 years ago on youtube (e.g. Thinkin Bout You - Frank Ocean Cover by Emmalyn, 10.8mm on vube in 4 months, nearly 3MM on youtube in 2 years)<p>Looking at the Alexa upstream sites [1], I see 10% of their traffic stems from adcash.com and various other advertising-related sites are represented in that list as well.<p>Is it really so easy to manipulate these stats? Did I miss a popular trend?<p>[1] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.alexa.com&#x2F;siteinfo&#x2F;vube.com
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wmaiouiru
I see pop up ads from Vube for some sites. I think that is why their visits
are being inflated.

Also it seems like a lot of browsers are getting infected with virus that
opens up Vube: [http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-vube-
virus/](http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-vube-virus/)

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notlisted
Ah, that explains. Since posting the question I found similar comments online
( e.g.
[http://www.webutation.net/go/review/vube.com](http://www.webutation.net/go/review/vube.com)
and
[http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130729083625AA...](http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130729083625AAl14OB)
fourth answer)

Still amazed that one can manipulate stats that much.

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ecspike
They popup ads on some popular bit torrent sites that are named for political
parties in Europe. ;)

That might explain the hidden stats.

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ibudiallo
Views are inflated because those videos pop under and start playing in the
background.

