Twitter has 150 million users. Instagram now has 80 million users and Twitter is not happy about it. George Takei has 2.5 million followers on his facebook page; the dancing cat video has been viewed 7 million times on Youtube. Rihanna has gathered 60 million likes on Facebook. Eminem has an equally impressive record. You should know just what I’m getting at by now. We now live in an era where big numbers equals big business. Or so the wisdom goes. Many people, corporations, and bodies publish these big numbers to signify their relevance or perceived success. But what does it all mean exactly?
It makes sense for statistics to be taken because it enables trends to be observed and recorded. These numbers have truly invaluable uses such as allowing epidemics to be spotted and controlled. Censuses for instance help governments to prepare more effective budgets and so on. And while it also makes sense to have these numbers published for public consumption, I can’t help but think that very many people and corporate bodies today have become very selective with the kind of statistics they publish; most of the numbers published today are of no use to us.
A music artiste having 60 million likes on Facebook doesn’t necessarily translate into record sales of such magnitude. Of course it pays to spot people who have a large followership/audience as such people can effectively influence public opinion and can also be used to advertise products/services.
Microsoft recently redesigned the look of Hotmail and gave users an option to make an early switch but also stated that the new look will be rolled out to all users later on. I then wonder why barely a fortnight later, they saw it fit to release a statement to the effect that 10 million users had switched over to the redesign. It’s not like we had a choice anyway. Every user will eventually be auto-migrated.
Having a large numbers of users/followers/likes can be very profitable for advertising purposes and also increases an app’s value but this isn’t necessarily a given. The best example here is Facebook. Analysts, finance experts and the company itself used its every growing large user base to tout the company and service as a force to be reckoned with and ultimately used these numbers to value the company but like others before it (Zynga, etc), this has failed to reflect in company’s stock market performance which has been nothing but dismal.
The following are more examples of big numbers being used deceptively.
Mobile Phone Sales
Common sense dictates that if a product has a high number of users or buyers in a crowded market, it must be good; to the buyers at least. Mobile phone manufacturers seem to have wised up to this fact and routinely issue press releases informing us of how many units have been sold. The caveat here is that there is a difference between numbers shipped and numbers sold but the PR departments conveniently use the number of units shipped for numbers sold.
Firefox vs Chrome
Google and Mozilla seem to be locked in an eternal war over product version numbers. The two firms have abused consumer psychology on the premise that a product that has a version number much higher than that of its peers must be more advanced.
Mercedes Benz S Class W221
In an attempt to big up the safety credentials of its flagship sedan, Mercedes has employed what I consider to be a marketing stunt. Part of the press release and official brochure states that the car detects driver fatigue by constantly monitoring 70 different parameters about the driver. While I am no automotive technician or medical practitioner, I seriously have not been able to come up with more than seven parameters that could possibly be monitored. Perhaps, instead of eyesight as a single item, the left and right eyes are two separate parameters. And even then, the number 70 seems wholly unattainable. I stand to be corrected if anyone can provide a comprehensive list.
Other tricks
Seeing as having a high number of likes is often perceived as a form of validation, other companies have resorted to outright rigging. Several competition, contests and raffles are available on the web but it is becoming increasingly common for the organisers of such events to ask you to ‘Like’ them on facebook before being allowed to enter your details for the contest. Even Google is in on the act. They constantly brag about how their newest social networking platform, Google +, has acquired over 250 million users in much less time than it took Facebook to reach the same milestone. They have avoided mentioning the fact many of their services such as Youtube, require you to have a Google + account before registering. Even the Bugatti Veyron is a victim of big numbers. The car’s top speed is just an exercise in big numbers as it is practically unsustainable; as the top speed is approached, either of two things is sure to happen – blown out tyres or completely depleted fuel.
The unfortunate thing is the practice shows no signs of slowing down. All this proves that we should be very mindful of whatever we make of all these numbers. Most are deceptive and can turn out to be very harmful if believed at face value. Facebook’s stock price performance will serve as a hard earned lesson for many. And if you need further proof of why you should be suspicious of the numbers, ask Hurley from LOST.
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