Media & Publishing / Revenue
Average Revenue Per User ARPU (aka ARPPU per paying user, ARPDAU per daily active; publisher variants: ad ARPU, subscription ARPU)
Average revenue divided by how many users you had, but "users" and "revenue" each hide a choice that moves the number several-fold.
The fork, why two teams get different numbers
The denominator fork: ARPU per ACTIVE user (revenue / average monthly active users, including everyone reading free) vs ARPPU per PAYING user (revenue / paying subscribers only).
In the Metric Library
- The full fork, both definitions worked all the way through
- The trap that makes the number lie, on a real export
- Every formula variant, spelled out
- The reconciliation anchor, what to tie it to and when to refuse
Reference: subscription and ad-supported media operating-metric convention (no single standards body); FASB ASC 606 for the revenue basis (reference)