Thanks for you article. I have a small question. Sorry if I'm missing something.
> 85% of users engage with the app every day of the week.
Are you sure that the DAU/WAU metric has such a meaning? Consider a hypothetical corner case. Suppose that users don't engage at all and leave a product as soon as they try it. Suppose also that the number of the new users arriving each day is constant -- 100. Thus, each day WAU = 700, DAU = 100, DAU/WAU = 1/7. But this doesn't nearly mean that 14% of the WAU users the app every day of the week. The number of users who use the app daily is 0.
Typically, New Users are excluded from the Active Users definition. Most companies segment Active users on New Active, Core Actvite, and Resurrected Active. These segments do not overlap with New Users (which is often defined as 24 hours after signup). Active user definition typically starts with a return event.
But even so. DAU/WAU essentially means what proportion of your weekly active audience is active *today*. There's nothing in the definition that would indicate how active the users were *before* the current day (in particular, whether they used the app every day or not).
I have another hypothetical example. Consider that you have 100 users. No new users. All core. Consider that half of them use the app on weekdays, while the others use it on weekends. In this case, DAU/WAU = 50/100 = 0.5 anytime. But can we state that 50% of the users use the app every day? No. There are no one who would use the app every day. Am I correct? Am I missing something?
Hi Olga,
Thanks for you article. I have a small question. Sorry if I'm missing something.
> 85% of users engage with the app every day of the week.
Are you sure that the DAU/WAU metric has such a meaning? Consider a hypothetical corner case. Suppose that users don't engage at all and leave a product as soon as they try it. Suppose also that the number of the new users arriving each day is constant -- 100. Thus, each day WAU = 700, DAU = 100, DAU/WAU = 1/7. But this doesn't nearly mean that 14% of the WAU users the app every day of the week. The number of users who use the app daily is 0.
Hi Vladimir, ask away!
New users are not DAU.
Typically, New Users are excluded from the Active Users definition. Most companies segment Active users on New Active, Core Actvite, and Resurrected Active. These segments do not overlap with New Users (which is often defined as 24 hours after signup). Active user definition typically starts with a return event.
Hm... okay. Makes sense. I didn't know that.
But even so. DAU/WAU essentially means what proportion of your weekly active audience is active *today*. There's nothing in the definition that would indicate how active the users were *before* the current day (in particular, whether they used the app every day or not).
I have another hypothetical example. Consider that you have 100 users. No new users. All core. Consider that half of them use the app on weekdays, while the others use it on weekends. In this case, DAU/WAU = 50/100 = 0.5 anytime. But can we state that 50% of the users use the app every day? No. There are no one who would use the app every day. Am I correct? Am I missing something?