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WePay (YC 09) Celebrates As Engagement Quintuples In Last 90 Days

48 points by kacy 16y ago

far33d 16y ago
Can we please decide on what the definition of engagement is? For social apps on facebook it is daily users / monthly users. Here it means "more users using the service". Let's not confuse vanity metrics with relative metrics.
- LeBlanc 16y ago
  The definition of engagement should depend on the application. Measuring engagement as daily users / monthly users may make sense for Facebook. However, for a company like WePay, engagement should be measured as the number of users who are actually taking action that involves a monetary transaction, because that is what makes the company money (and this is the engagement metric that the article states WePay is using).
  - far33d 16y ago
    Engagement should be a relative metric: so in this case, maybe, the % of users who sign up that make a transaction in a time period. Otherwise it's not really meaningful without other data (ad spend, total users, etc). This is "total engaged users" not "engagement".
rumpelstiltskin 16y ago
Any ETA on when WePay is opening up to take payments as an alternative to paypal? I'm sure your engagement will be magnitudes of order higher with that announcement :)
- aberman 16y ago
  Soon.
  - leftnode 16y ago
    Awesome, I'll use WePay in a heartbeat if you can provide similar functionality without the headache.
  - dhimes 16y ago
    Desparately. Want. This.
iamelgringo 16y ago
I met Rich and Bill the evening before their YC interview, at Hackers & Founders. I still remember it very clearly. I totally didn't get their product, but they insisted on buying me a beer, convinced me to create a WePay account, give them my bank account information and transfer $0.25 to test out their system. Anyone who knows my privacy nuttiness, should know that's a friggin miracle. I've been a dedicated WePay customer ever since, and I use their service at least once a week. Out of all the startups in the Valley that I've met, if there's one company I'd love a very tiny piece of, it's WePay. (I'm not hinting, I'm saying that as a vote of confidence) Congrats, guys! Happy birthday.
bobwaycott 16y ago
I thought engagement usually indicated a special sort of future-looking partnership, considerable emotional risk, and several K down the drain on a shiny trinket--not to mention a massive influx of stress and worry about how to launch by deadline. Given that, I was scratching my head, wondering if this was a new service whereby the engaged save parents considerable financial burden by bootstrapping their new startup, everyone finally candidly admitting there was, at best, a 50% success rate. Maybe that's an idea for another time ...
geraldalewis 16y ago
My fiancé and I are using it for our wedding registry, and so far the experience has been spectacular!
jakek 16y ago
We've used WePay to split bills between three roommates for over a year now - it's saves us a huge amount of hassle each month

48 points by kacy 16y ago

Can we please decide on what the definition of engagement is? For social apps on facebook it is daily users / monthly users. Here it means "more users using the service". Let's not confuse vanity metrics with relative metrics.

LeBlanc 16y ago
The definition of engagement should depend on the application. Measuring engagement as daily users / monthly users may make sense for Facebook. However, for a company like WePay, engagement should be measured as the number of users who are actually taking action that involves a monetary transaction, because that is what makes the company money (and this is the engagement metric that the article states WePay is using).
- far33d 16y ago
  Engagement should be a relative metric: so in this case, maybe, the % of users who sign up that make a transaction in a time period. Otherwise it's not really meaningful without other data (ad spend, total users, etc). This is "total engaged users" not "engagement".

rumpelstiltskin 16y ago

Any ETA on when WePay is opening up to take payments as an alternative to paypal? I'm sure your engagement will be magnitudes of order higher with that announcement :)

aberman 16y ago
Soon.
- leftnode 16y ago
  Awesome, I'll use WePay in a heartbeat if you can provide similar functionality without the headache.
- dhimes 16y ago
  Desparately. Want. This.

iamelgringo 16y ago

I met Rich and Bill the evening before their YC interview, at Hackers & Founders. I still remember it very clearly. I totally didn't get their product, but they insisted on buying me a beer, convinced me to create a WePay account, give them my bank account information and transfer $0.25 to test out their system. Anyone who knows my privacy nuttiness, should know that's a friggin miracle. I've been a dedicated WePay customer ever since, and I use their service at least once a week. Out of all the startups in the Valley that I've met, if there's one company I'd love a very tiny piece of, it's WePay. (I'm not hinting, I'm saying that as a vote of confidence) Congrats, guys! Happy birthday.

bobwaycott 16y ago

I thought engagement usually indicated a special sort of future-looking partnership, considerable emotional risk, and several K down the drain on a shiny trinket--not to mention a massive influx of stress and worry about how to launch by deadline. Given that, I was scratching my head, wondering if this was a new service whereby the engaged save parents considerable financial burden by bootstrapping their new startup, everyone finally candidly admitting there was, at best, a 50% success rate. Maybe that's an idea for another time ...

geraldalewis 16y ago

My fiancé and I are using it for our wedding registry, and so far the experience has been spectacular!

jakek 16y ago

We've used WePay to split bills between three roommates for over a year now - it's saves us a huge amount of hassle each month