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I love in all of these posts they claim Foursquare has 10 million users. There is no way the amount of active users is anywhere close to that. So many people I

I love in all of these posts they claim Foursquare has 10 million users. There is no way the amount of active users is anywhere close to that. So many people I know sign up, check in once or twice, and never use it again.

MatthewB 15y ago
Good point. I like to talk trash about Facebook's PR but one thing they consistently do correctly is report total user numbers only when they are confirmed active users.
- hvs 15y ago
  Facebook only reports "active" users because it is possible for them to do it in a positive light. If they had the same sort of usage that Foursquare undoubtedly has, they would be counting all users that signed up as well. That said, I still give Facebook credit for doing it.
  - andrewljohnson 15y ago
    Fundamentally, because Facebook counts it, that's what they seek. That's probably part of the recipe.
  - xentronium 15y ago
    I wonder if number of registered accounts on facebook already exceeds Earth's population and is kinda absurd to use in any kind of statistics.
- phereford 15y ago
  I dont think when Facebook said they had 500 million users that they meant they had 500 million active users. I thought I saw a post today (or this week) that they hit 750 million users (without the word active in it...or so I think). The definition of active is so obtuse and varies wildly from company to company that it doesnt even matter :).
  - mikeryan 15y ago
    I dont think when Facebook said they had 500 million users that they meant they had 500 million active users. From Facebook's Statistics Site More than 500 million active users 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
    - phereford 15y ago
      Okay. My point is what is active? Someone who logs in once a year? Once a month? Sure 50% of "active" users log in once a day, but what about the other 50%?
      - dillydally 15y ago
        For Facebook "active" has always meant "signed on within the last 30 days."
jorgeortiz85 15y ago
We report 10 million _registered_ users. We've never reported (or made any claims about) active users. Most tech companies report registered users; Facebook being the notable exception. When Twitter says they have 200M users or Skype says they have 650M users, they're reporting registered, not active, users. That Foursquare only reports registered users is in line with what most of the rest of the industry does.
- JayNeely 15y ago
  But don't you think that's kind of shitty? "in line with what most of the rest of the industry does" doesn't make it any better of a metric.
  - harryh 15y ago
    FWIW I actually agree with you on this point. It's a bit of a prisoners dilema problem though. Basically everyone at this point has "defected" (reported signups). To be the only company to "cooperate (report active users) would be bad PR in a world in which most people don't pay attention to (or in many cases even understand) the difference. It sucks a little, but I'm not sure what to do about it. -harryh, engineering lead @ foursquare
    - jdp23 15y ago
      presumably your new investors understand the difference and are happy with the real numbers. so it's a great chance to invent the future (as you said above): do it the right way, and have other folks copy you.
  - physcab 15y ago
    All you want to do is showcase your company's growth in the best possible way without being misleading. They're not being misleading or shitty. If you're a free service that doesn't require a signup and makes money off advertising, then reporting registered users doesn't make sense. Advertisers just want to know eyeballs, so Google Analytics Visitor numbers will do. For Foursquare reporting registered users doesn't really make much sense either. They could have easily reported mobile installs too, but that would be similar. Internally, I'd be checking other growth metrics such as "How many people are using Explore", or "How many people are referring friends", or "How many businesses are getting new leads as a result of Foursquare". These are much more important questions, but alas, getting the media to care about that is hopeless.

MatthewB 15y ago

Good point. I like to talk trash about Facebook's PR but one thing they consistently do correctly is report total user numbers only when they are confirmed active users.

hvs 15y ago
Facebook only reports "active" users because it is possible for them to do it in a positive light. If they had the same sort of usage that Foursquare undoubtedly has, they would be counting all users that signed up as well. That said, I still give Facebook credit for doing it.
- andrewljohnson 15y ago
  Fundamentally, because Facebook counts it, that's what they seek. That's probably part of the recipe.
- xentronium 15y ago
  I wonder if number of registered accounts on facebook already exceeds Earth's population and is kinda absurd to use in any kind of statistics.
phereford 15y ago
I dont think when Facebook said they had 500 million users that they meant they had 500 million active users. I thought I saw a post today (or this week) that they hit 750 million users (without the word active in it...or so I think). The definition of active is so obtuse and varies wildly from company to company that it doesnt even matter :).
- mikeryan 15y ago
  I dont think when Facebook said they had 500 million users that they meant they had 500 million active users. From Facebook's Statistics Site More than 500 million active users 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
  - phereford 15y ago
    Okay. My point is what is active? Someone who logs in once a year? Once a month? Sure 50% of "active" users log in once a day, but what about the other 50%?
    - dillydally 15y ago
      For Facebook "active" has always meant "signed on within the last 30 days."

jorgeortiz85 15y ago

We report 10 million _registered_ users. We've never reported (or made any claims about) active users. Most tech companies report registered users; Facebook being the notable exception. When Twitter says they have 200M users or Skype says they have 650M users, they're reporting registered, not active, users. That Foursquare only reports registered users is in line with what most of the rest of the industry does.

JayNeely 15y ago
But don't you think that's kind of shitty? "in line with what most of the rest of the industry does" doesn't make it any better of a metric.
- harryh 15y ago
  FWIW I actually agree with you on this point. It's a bit of a prisoners dilema problem though. Basically everyone at this point has "defected" (reported signups). To be the only company to "cooperate (report active users) would be bad PR in a world in which most people don't pay attention to (or in many cases even understand) the difference. It sucks a little, but I'm not sure what to do about it. -harryh, engineering lead @ foursquare
  - jdp23 15y ago
    presumably your new investors understand the difference and are happy with the real numbers. so it's a great chance to invent the future (as you said above): do it the right way, and have other folks copy you.
- physcab 15y ago
  All you want to do is showcase your company's growth in the best possible way without being misleading. They're not being misleading or shitty. If you're a free service that doesn't require a signup and makes money off advertising, then reporting registered users doesn't make sense. Advertisers just want to know eyeballs, so Google Analytics Visitor numbers will do. For Foursquare reporting registered users doesn't really make much sense either. They could have easily reported mobile installs too, but that would be similar. Internally, I'd be checking other growth metrics such as "How many people are using Explore", or "How many people are referring friends", or "How many businesses are getting new leads as a result of Foursquare". These are much more important questions, but alas, getting the media to care about that is hopeless.