Late august I added something new to Read Later for Instapaper.
I threw in some code to track the usage of the program. Before certain arguments hit the table let me state that the privacy of the app users is a very big concern! Devices and user specific information are not shared. The only semi-personal information sent to the server is the current external IP address which usually has nothing to do with the phone but the network (cell / wifi). The IP is used to give a general idea of a user count – which is not a very reliable method – but the only acceptable one.
Now to the interesting part: There seems to be some nice trends in usage.
The overall user base is increasing. This information is also provided by Android Market and isn’t new. The number of “unique users” us increasing and so is the number of pages sent to Instapaper. As the developer of the app this information is very nice. Without it there is really no way to know anything but the number of installations. To say the least these numbers a very inspiring!
A full month has passed so I feel it’s appropriate to let everybody know how much the app has been used during september: The number of pages shared with Instapaper is approximately 125 thousand which is a daily average of over 4,000 – amazing! There is no doubt that october will have less shared pages – but the number of users will be higher – I’m looking forward to completing october and posting the full stats.