Ad-supported social and content. Engagement is the product: DAU/MAU stickiness, retention curves, and the power-user curve predict survival, while eCPM and fill rate convert attention to revenue. Growth must be near-organic — paid-propped social rarely sustains.
Representative companies
- Meta — the attention-and-ads archetype
- TikTok — algorithmic feed, extreme stickiness
- Reddit — community-driven, ad-monetized
Primary metrics
The metrics that define health for a media business.
- Monthly growth rate / CMGRGlobal / FinancialPG: 5-7%/wk good, 10% great, 1% weak. Bessemer stage curve: ~200%/yr at $1-10M ARR decaying to ~60%/yr at $50-100M.
- DAU/MAU stickinessRetentionB2C: OK 25 / Good 40 / Great 50+ (a16z). B2B SaaS avg ~31% (Mixpanel). NOTE the 20%/50% rule is CONSUMER, not B2B.
- D1 / D7 / D30 retentionRetentionSocial: D1 50/60/70, D7 35/40/50, D30 20/25/30 (a16z). Games median: D1 ~22%, D7 ~3-4%, D28 <3% for 75%. The '40/20/10' heuristic is TOP-TIER, not median.
- Power-user curve (L5+/L30)RetentionL5+ OK 30 / Good 40 / Great 50+. a16z prefers the full L30 histogram over a single ratio.
- ARPDAURevenueHypercasual ~$0.01-0.05; casual $0.03-0.10; hybrid-casual $0.15-0.50; midcore $0.08-0.20; social casino $0.20-0.80+. Genre is everything.
- eCPMRevenueUS rewarded video ~$16-20; interstitials ~$14-15; banners <$1.3. Heavily geo-dependent.
- Fill rateRevenueTier-1 traffic 85-95%; mixed global 70-85%; emerging-market 50-70%.
Secondary metrics
Omega Point BenchmarksMedia