Postcrossing Blog

Some time ago, Pebbles84 sent us this suggestion for a blog post:

“How about an overview of how country distribution has changed over the years? I’m a member for over 2 years, and it seems things have changed quite a lot. It would be nice to see in which countries Postcrossing has grown a lot, and how the amount of members has changed.”

If you’ve been a member for a long time, you probably have noticed that Postcrossing’s popularity in certain countries changes over time. Sometimes, a news report or a blurb on a popular website will catapult the project to stardom, raising the number of signups in that city or country.

Members that have been here since the beginning might remember a time when every other card seemed to be traveling to Portugal, Brazil or Finland, or how rare Asian countries once were. These days, there are definitely more users from Russia or Taiwan on the site – countries come and go in waves.

Being data geeks, we were curious to see what the member distribution looked like plotted in a graph, and so we crunched some numbers and did the math.

You can explore the results on the interactive chart below:

Isn’t it interesting? You can see when Postcrossing started to become popular in some countries, or how others have lost their prominent rank. Also, the “Other” category is growing, meaning that the pool of countries is becoming increasingly diverse.

Keep in mind however, that the countries that have the most users are not always the ones that send more postcards! If you’re curious, you can check out the current number of members per country and postcards sent per country on our Explore Countries page!

Some time ago, we were contacted by Wanting Luo (Celery0625), a student from the University of Cincinnati who was using Postcrossing as a theme for a design projects. His idea was to create a infographic which would show the project’s evolution throughout the years.

The result is the lovely graphic above. It features a lot of facts about Postcrossing, including our growth curve, most important milestones, which countries have been more heavily represented throughout the years, and a lot of other interesting details. Have a look and let us know what you think!

PS – This is a big image, so depending on your screen, you might have to scroll the window sideways and vertically to see it.

On the last post, we mentioned the new stamp from the Dutch postal service featuring Postcrossing, which was launched this past Saturday on the Postex event.

Paulo gave a short presentation about the project, and received the first sheet of stamps from the hands of Berend Dorgelo, from PostNL.

Designer Garech Stone, from the Stone Twins, also gave the audience some insights about the design process, and shared some “easter eggs” hidden in the stamps! For instance, can you find the suited monkey with a gun? :)

As part of the stamp launch, PostNL is organising a contest where Dutch postcrossers can win a travel voucher of 500 euros, if they use the stamps on their Postcrossing cards. To participate, have a look at the contest page.

Once again, our heartfelt thank you to PostNL, Raymond68 and all the people who were involved in the process of making this dream come true!

This was a big step in our postcard revolution, and we look forward to collaborating with other postal services in the future! :)

Yes, you read that right! On October 14th, PostNL will launch a real stamp, featuring Postcrossing! How awesome is that?

For us, it’s a huge honour that the project was deemed worthy of being featured in a stamp, and we’re very grateful to PostNL (the Dutch postal service) for making this dream come true. We’d also like to thank postcrosser Raymond68 – the Postcrossing stamp exists because of his efforts and persistence.

The stamp was designed by Garech and Declan Stone, and features all kinds of traditional postcards strewn about, as if scattered on your doormat. Here is what the stamp sheet looks like:

Neat, right? There are several different stamps, both for Europe and the rest of the world, featuring the traditional postcard motives.

The first stamps will be delivered to Paulo on October 15th, during the Postex event in Apeldoorn. Postex is an annual event for philatelic collectors, featuring celebrating associations, youth philately, traders from home and abroad, foreign postal administration(s), Day of the Stamp, exhibitions and much more.

If you’re in the area, come and say hi! There will be plenty of stamps for sale, and we’ll have a small presentation about Postcrossing around 10:30am.

We’ll be back on the weekend with more information about the stamp, and also to give away a few sheets! :)

Six years ago I turned the switch on to open Postcrossing to everyone, without realizing how popular it would become, let alone how many different people it would touch and connect.

Today, with the mark of 8 million postcards already in sight and over 200 thousand members from all over the world, I realize that I might – almost accidentally -, have started a postcard revolution!

As the founder of Postcrossing, I often get thanked for starting this project. However, I often feel the roles are reversed and that I should be the one thanking all the members instead. Without every Postcrosser, this project would not be what it is today. While I’m very proud to have started it all, you are the ones truly responsible for its growth and success. For being such an awesome community, here’s my honest: thank you!

And, to celebrate this very special day, I’ve prepared a special surprise for you all: during today, all members can send 6 extra postcards – that’s on top of your current limit! This applies to all existing accounts (not new ones) and it’s valid until 23h59 of July 14th (UTC+1), so hurry up!

We also want to thank all of you who sent us photos on our request: we have received more than we could have wished for and we’ve been striking smile after smile after seeing you all. Ana is already working on a video (no easy task with so many photos!) and we’ll post it here once it’s ready, together with the winners of the lottery.

So now, without further ado, please join me and the little mail carriers in wishing,