I assume user numbers aren't audited in the same way that financial information is (that is, with GAAP and external auditing). For example, I looked at Faceboo

I assume user numbers aren't audited in the same way that financial information is (that is, with GAAP and external auditing). For example, I looked at Facebook's Q3 Form 10-Q, and there wasn't anything there about user numbers. It would be interesting if publicly-traded companies could have a "key metric", a non-monetary, objective (so, not stuff like "user satisfaction"), numeric, auditable value that the company says "This number is stated as firmly and as clearly as our Financials. Judge us on this.", and which is included in the 10-series forms (10-K and 10-Q). Of course, you might not trust such a number, but this makes falsification much more dangerous.