It is interesting to compare the native app numbers against the desktop web app:
The web app also turned its attention to increasing UGC uploads, but not in the sweeping way in which the mobile apps did. The data reflects this, with a noticeable increase in Q4 of 2022 and a higher baseline for the next two years after that.
During this time, our product analytics team measured a slice of monthly active users according to whether they had modified media. The data coincided with what we knew from uploads and interactions:
What follows is interesting to me. That is because raising the UGC upload metric never was a goal in and of itself, but rather a means to raise more important business metrics, and data has matured to where we can have a read of this at a higher level. Assuming the product design hypothesis was correct, the business impact hypothesis that follows is: if UGC uploads increase, then hints generated increase, because people are receiving more hints. If hints generated increase, hints accepted should increase. If hints accepted increase, then the very important metrics of monthly active users, weekly active users, daily active users, and stickiness should increase. If all these high-level metrics increase, then the two most important metrics affecting the business' bottom line should increase, subscribers, and retention.
Photo hints generated
Photo hints accepted
MAU, WAU, DAU, and app stickiness
Gross subscriber additions
Of course, it is hard to point at the impact of likes and comments, the entire UGC upload strategy, and even the native apps as it relates to the business with any high degree of certainty.
As an aside, the increase in peer-to-peer messages as a function of likes and comments activity could never be verified, because the data went silent after 2022:
Pulled in May of 2024, the impact of likes and comments that can be measured with a high degree of certainty is as follows:
The data shows that we cannot single the impact of likes and comments at a scale as large as the business, but we can point to a general postive trend at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 in some important metrics. Yearly trends suggest there is an uptick in usage and uploads at the end of each year. Monthly trends observed over long periods of time suggest there is even an uptick that can be expected depending on the day of the week. In all, the UGC strategy seems to have capitalized on an important and positive aspect of growing and maintaining the business, during a particularly active period of six months. Any broader conclusions in the growth and maintenance of the business are the reult of many more variables, internal and external, and the work of many teams.