It's time for the annual round up of what happened last year. In summary:
- A big thank you to all Gwulo's patrons, who make a regular monthly or annual contribution towards the costs of running the Gwulo website (hosting fees, the mailing service that sends out the newsletters, hardware costs, and the time I spend on the site).
- You'll see that the number of patrons, and the total monthly contribution, has fallen for the third year in a row. At the same time the costs of running Gwulo steadily increase. If you are a regular reader of Gwulo, please become a patron to keep Gwulo running. A typical monthly contribution is USD3-5, but any amount is welcome, whether paid monthly or annually.
- Congratulations to 2023's ...
- Overall, Gwulo had a steady year. We grew in size (we're now up to over 54,000 pages, including over 35,000 photos), and gathered new subscribers (over 5,200 people subscribe to the regular email newsletter). However that was offset by a slight drop in the number of page views across the year, which fell to 966,000.
You can explore these figures in more detail below, and I'll be back with a look at the plans for 2024 in a future newsletter.
Best regards,
David
1. The Gwulo Website
1. 1 Website features
There haven't been any major changes to the way the site works this year, just the regular rounds of minor upgrades and bug fixes.
1.2 Website content
Thank you to everyone who has added to Gwulo during 2023, growing the site to over 54,000 pages, including over 35,000 photos. You can see the detailed figures at the bottom of the page.
Here are the most popular pages that were created during 2023: (I've excluded a couple of pages that were for events that have already passed)
2. Patrons, contributors, and readers
2.1 Patrons
Thank you to all of Gwulo's patrons, who make a monthly or annual contribution towards the costs of running the website (both time spent and out-of-pocket expenses).
You'll see that the number of patrons has dropped this year. If you receive value from the Gwulo website and newsletters, please consider becoming a patron.
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | |
| Number of patrons | 39 | 45 | 59 | 61 | 51 | 53 | 55 | 54 |
| Total HK$ monthly contribution | HK$2,350 | 2,425 | 3,169 | 3,557 | 3,047 | 2,545 | 2,425 | 2,440 |
2.2 Contributors
Here are Gwulo's most prolific contributors in 2023, who added to the site's pages, photos, and comments:
| Rank | Name | Pages | Photos | Comments | Total |
| 1 | simtang | 38 | 787 | 123 | 948 |
| 2 | Admin | 163 | 173 | 270 | 606 |
| 3 | moddsey | 109 | 207 | 240 | 556 |
| 4 | Colin L Day | 383 | 383 | ||
| 5 | Klaus | 48 | 187 | 98 | 333 |
| 6 | IDJ | 234 | 234 | ||
| 7 | philk | 54 | 109 | 71 | 234 |
| 8 | Alan Ho | 26 | 118 | 49 | 193 |
| 9 | annpake | 165 | 165 | ||
| 10 | tngan | 147 | 147 | ||
| Show all | Show all | Show all |
Thank you to all of Gwulo's contributors, including volunteers Grace, simoncopley, and wingcli2015 for their hard work in typing up the Jurors Lists.
If you have any knowledge or old maps / photos / documents about old Hong Kong you can share with Gwulo's readers, it will be very gratefully received. Please leave a comment below if you need any help with how best to add it to the website.
2.3 Readers
2.3.1 Website readers
According to Google's figures, the number of unique people visiting Gwulo dived from 1.5 million in 2022 to 202,000 in 2023. That continues the drop we saw last year. The number of page views also fell, but it was a much smaller drop from 1.9 million to 1.7 million.
I believe the severe drop in the number of unique visitors is because of the change to the new version of Google Analytics last year, which records the numbers differently. If I'm right, we'll see the numbers level off next year.
I don't worry about these numbers: as long as the subscribers and content continues to grow, that's fine.
2.3.2 E-mail subscribers
This is the most important number for me, as the people who subscribe to the e-mail newsletter tend to be the people who are willing to read the content we send out, and then visit the website to find more information, and get involved. People who follow Gwulo on Social Media enjoy the photos we send out, but are less likely to follow up with a visit to the Gwulo website.
We ended 2023 with over 5,200 subscribers to the weekly newsletter, and with 975 copies of the daily Wartime Diaries emails sent out each morning to readers around the world.
2.3.3 Social Media
The number of followers across Gwulo's accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and X / Twitter continue to grow. I've also created an account on Threads, but so far I don't see much activity there.
3. Walks, talks, books, and the press
3.1 Walks and talks in 2023
- March - Hong Kong Literary Festival: that was the first time I've been invited to take part, so it was a real treat. There were two events, both fully booked:
- I led a guided walk around San Po Kong, introducing the area's history.
- Then there was an illustrated talk, introducing some of my favourite photos and their stories.
- April - Royal Asiatic Society: This was a bit different from my usual talks, looking at some of the stories behind the photos - where to find old photos, tips for buying, scams to watch out for, etc.
- May - Maritime Museum: Another first for me, and a lovely venue. I showed photos and told stories from Volume 3 of my books, as that is the one with a maritime theme.
- June - Royal Geographical Society private event. This was an informal talk to a small group who were interested in Hong Kong's history, and it was a lot of fun.
- November - Hong Kong University, MA in Hong Kong History. I introduced Gwulo and our approach to investigating Hong Kong's history to this class of MA students. It is the first time I have taught in a university setting, and it was also very satisfying.
3.2 Books
Volume 5 of my books was delivered from the printer on 19 December, so with a bit of a mad rush we were able to get all the Hong Kong orders in to the mail before Christmas. The response from readers has been good so far.
When I added up the numbers for the Volume 5 pre-orders, we'd also passed the 7,000th copy of Gwulo's books sold, so that was a happy Christmas present for me!
3,3 Gwulo in the press
Gwulo appeared in the press twice last year:
- February - Hong Kong Economic Journal interview
- June - CNN Travel: "How a Hong Kong wartime diary sparked an unlikely friendship that spanned decades and continents." (And as Phil notes, 'proof that you did, once, have hair'!)
Still reading? Well done! Please scroll down to see the detailed numbers.
2023 in numbers
Visitors to the website:
| Website traffic (thousands) | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |
| Visitors | 966 | 1,602 | 890 | 420 | 400 | 317 | 253 | 230 | 226 | 263 | 250 | 200 | 157 | |
| Unique visitors | 202 | 882 | 1,516 | 732 | 267 | 245 | 191 | 148 | 138 | 131 | 155 | 150 | 113 | 88 |
| Pageviews | 1,753 | 1,912 | 2,552 | 2,640 | 2,077 | 1,996 | 1,647 | 1,292 | 1,184 | 1,186 | 1,351 | 1,149 | 919 | 872 |
(I think Google changed their way of recording the number of visitors in 2020, and again in 2022, explaining the sudden jump then drop in the number of visitors in those years.)
Subscribers / Followers:
| Newsletter Subscribers | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |
| 5,229 | 4,853 | 4,695 | 3,939 | 3,240 | 2,737 | 2,067 | 1,466 | 1,211 | 1,030 | 833 | 603 | 353 | 180 | |
| 7,700 | 6,500 | 6,100 | 5,043 | 3,487 | 3,060 | 2,344 | 1,849 | 1,629 | 965 | 705 | 463 | 273 | ||
| 819 | 790 | 700 | 606 | 282 | 229 | 153 | 114 | 100 | 82 | 58 | 43 | 33 | ||
| 3,280 | 3,100 | |||||||||||||
| 1,133 | 871 | |||||||||||||
| RSS subscriptions [1] | 48 | 81 | 31 | 82 | 53 | |||||||||
| Total | 18,161 | 16,114 | 11,495 | 9,588 | 7,009 | 6,026 | 4,564 | 3,420 | 2,988 | 2,158 | 1,627 | 1,191 | 712 | 180 |
| Wartime Diaries subscribers | ||||||||||||||
| 82 years ago | 162 | |||||||||||||
| 81 years ago | 260 | 182 | ||||||||||||
| 80 years ago | 173 | 143 | 133 | |||||||||||
| 79 years ago | 187 | 158 | 160 | 110 | ||||||||||
| 78 years ago | 193 | 160 | 156 | 117 | 74 | |||||||||
| 77 years ago [2] | 227 | 156 | 125 | 112 | 56 | |||||||||
| 76 years ago [2] | 228 | 219 | 165 | 167 | 108 | |||||||||
| 75 years ago [2] | 209 | 183 | 148 | 141 | 86 | |||||||||
| 74 years ago [2] | 199 | 156 | 144 | 109 | 79 | |||||||||
| 73 years ago [2] | 138 | 131 | 108 | 91 | 100 | |||||||||
| 72 years ago [2] | 143 | 115 | 89 | 97 | 109 | |||||||||
| 71 years ago [2] | 139 | 85 | 88 | 88 | 81 | |||||||||
| 70 years ago [2] | 94 | 42 | 44 | 37 | ||||||||||
| Total [3] | 975 | 870 | 833 | 780 | 733 | 665 | 667 | 557 | 438 | 327 | 241 | 118 |
Notes:
[1]. Since switching from Feedburner to MailChimp, we have no way to monitor the number of RSS subscriptions.
[2]. These diary cycles had already finished, so I don't count their subscribers this year.
[3]. Some people subscribe to more than one year's Wartime Diaries, so the total number of individuals subscribing will be lower than the value shown here.
Website content:
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | |
| Photos | 35,614 | 31,983 | 29,803 | 27,477 | 23,305 | 19,870 | 17,740 | 15,508 | 11,670 | 9,401 | 7,817 | 6,359 | 5,725 | 4,330 |
| Places | 6,514 | 6,141 | 5,901 | 5,628 | 5,029 | 4,570 | 4,290 | 3,770 | 3,140 | 2,867 | 2,440 | 2,035 | 1,623 | 1,310 |
| Diary pages | 5,399 | 5,393 | 5,258 | 5,051 | 4,973 | 4,690 | 4,630 | 4,373 | 3,836 | 3,243 | 2,326 | 1,589 | ||
| People | 4,011 | 3,813 | 3,661 | 3,458 | 3,281 | 3,120 | 2,900 | 2,696 | 2,425 | 1,907 | 1,522 | 1,000 | 28 | |
| Forum topics | 2,248 | 2,134 | 2,014 | 1,853 | 1,621 | 1,460 | 1,310 | 1,159 | 1,019 | 923 | 761 | 639 | 525 | 350 |
| Stories | 603 | 577 | 564 | 548 | 505 | 480 | 430 | 405 | 341 | 312 | 265 | 243 | 213 | 170 |
| Streets | 50 | 50 | 44 | 37 | 20 | |||||||||
| Events | 41 | |||||||||||||
| Total pages | 54,480 | 50,091 | 47,245 | 44,052 | 38,734 | 34,190 | 31,300 | 27,911 | 22,431 | 18,653 | 15,131 | 11,865 | 8,114 | 6,160 |
| Total comments | 57,963 | 54,007 | 53,689 | 49,580 | 43,690 | 38,840 | 35,320 | 31,861 | 27,620 | 24,097 | 20,883 | 17,477 | 14,910 | 11,370 |
| Jurors Lists (years) | 68 | 62 | 58 | 55 | 48 | 43 | 38 | 35 | 33 | 31 | 29 | 27 | 19 | 11 |
Number of people adding pages, photos, & comments to the website during the year:
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |
| People adding pages | 88 | 93 | 287 | 272 | 215 |
| People adding photos | 184 | 137 | |||
| People adding comments | 255 | 299 | 582 | 549 | 413 |
(From 2022 on, photos are counted separately from other pages.)