this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2023
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43
Social media startup IRL is shutting down after an investigation by its board concluded that 95% of its claimed 20M MAUs were “automated or from bots” (www.theinformation.com)
submitted 2 years ago by silverbax@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] bappity@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

95% of 20 MILLION????

[–] aphonefriend@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Soon to be reddit.

[–] anas@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago

This is how reddit started.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

If there are already articles proclaiming that user traffic is back to normal, I'd be surprised if this wasn't already the case at Reddit. Lots of subs I've been at have had wonky traffic and subscriptions behavior that looked like bots.

Reddit sells ads. They do this by convincing advertisers that access to their traffic is worth money. They'd be crazy not to cheat their metics, if it's possible to do so.

[–] average650@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

What are MAUs?

[–] 1nevitableBetrayal@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

"Monthly Active Users" I think.

[–] faltuuser@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Saved me a google search

[–] pro@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Made Up Users, apparently

[–] sickday@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

"Mostly Artificial Users" lol

[–] jaden@partizle.com 1 points 2 years ago

Kinda unfair considering that's what reddit did.

[–] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Anyone remember what happened to that social network started by the two teenage girls? It was popular for a minute, then straight up vanished.

[–] Rairii@haqueers.com 1 points 2 years ago

@silverbax what are the odds on that being the same or similar for every other centralised social network? they only care about that magic MAU value and will tamper with it as much as possible to sell ads.

"ad fraud" is just something EVERYONE seems to be doing, and the big players just do it bigger.