Monthly Active User (MAU)
Categories: Metrics
At Shmoop, we have about 20 million of them in the busy season.
Why does this number matter? Well, active users are people to whom we can market the fine products of soft drink companies, student loan companies, computer service companies, and of course, bail bondsmen.
Advertisers care a lot about the reach of their exposure to people, and the MAU number gives at least a base case for them to understand the breadth and depth and value of your media company.
The term bandied about in the press is derived from the Google Analytics platform which covers the number of "uniques" or unique users (really, unique IP addresses) coming to a given site in a given period. Period.