You’re the PM for instagram feed and you see MAU went down 20%. Why did this go down?
- Karan Trivedi
Qualifying Questions:
What is the time frame of drop?
Assumed Answer: Over a Month (Month on Month)
What is the trajectory of drop? Is it cliff drop or is it gradual drop
Assumed Answer: Gradual
Region of drop:
Assumed Answer: Drop across all regions
Platform of drop (Android, iOS, mweb, Desktop)
Assumed Answer: All platforms
Any time of day drop pattern ?
Assumed Answer: No pattern in time of day, across all time of day drop.
Answer: Thanks for the clarifications:
Instagram Mission:
Give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.
Internal Factors which needs probing:Way of Measuring MAU has changed?
Answer: No
Tracking of MAU is working fine?
Answer: Yes
Contributers to total MAU:
New Users: Has New Users Dropped?
Assumed Answer = Same as the previous month
Returning User: (rhetorical question) Has Returning User Dropped?
Assumed Answer: Yes, returning users have dropped.
Contributors to Returning Users:
Users returning from Notifications
Users returning from App Icon/Url type in browser
Users returning from third party referrals
User returning from other sources than above
Q- Which one of the above sources have fallen in MoM?
Assumed Answer: Users returning from App Icon/Url type in browser has fallen.
Probable Reasons for drop in returning users from App Icon/Url type in browser:
1) Impact of poor engagement of sub-products in instagram i.e Newsfeed, Reels etc. Returning users/retention is a result of engaged users and if over engagement goes down then eventually retention will be impacted.
Assumed Answer: Yes, Some product in Instagram are under performing in terms of engagement.
2) Poor performance of app i.e app crashes often leading to less returning users
Assumed Answer: App Performance is stable
3) External Factors:
a) BAD PR.
b) Regulatory conditions stopping people to use the product
c) Competition apps being launched or launching new features which are taking away users.
Assumed Answer: None of the above external factors are responsible.
Probable Reasons for drop in engagement of Instagram sub-products i.e Feed and Reels:
** Assuming only 2 products are there on Instagram, feed, and reels.
Which of the 2 products have dropped?
Assumed Answer: Reels engagement has dropped but Feed engagement has grown marginally.
Reasons for drop in engagement of Reels:
**Definition of Reels – 30 secs videos with which users can interact (comment, reaction, share etc)
Did the layout of the Reels change or discovery within Instagram app change?
Assumed answer: No
Did the number of reels created reduced in MoM?
Assumed Answer: Its roughly the same as previous month.
Only possible reason which can bring about a big drop in engagement hence big drop in returning users is Algorithm.
Did the total number of reel views per user increased over Month?
Assumed Answer: No, it has dropped by 35%
Possible Reason from Drop: Algo changes in reels which has caused drop in retention in Reels product hence having an impact on long term metric of MAU.

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