The race to TEN MILLION users

Ah well, it can’t be then. Definitely not

2 Likes

Monzo should have a counter on their front page. That would be cool.

17 Likes

I think the problem here is on the quantum level, Monzo are clearly worried about the observer effect.

“When under observation, customers are being ‘forced’ to behave like particles and not like waves. Thus the mere act of observation affects the apparent behaviour of the customers”

It’s clear, the issue is that by seeing the exact number of customers we are forcing those customers to behave in a certain way, to go down a specific path, whereas if we have a broad unobserved number like 5 million then customers can do whatever the hell they want.

Now that’s true financial freedom.

Quantum transparency. If only I’d known.

1 Like

@AlanDoe is the “more than 5 million” a live figure? Will it tick over to “more than 6 million” automatically?

Looking at the source code it’s just a static text element now.

Will need updating manually.

The API being taken offline was the biggest tell to me that it’ll just be manual from now on and when they’re ready to share/update.

It’s possible we may not find out when they hit 6 million at all.

2 Likes

Also it may be with the comments about different types of customers meaning that they don’t think the number is accurate. It may be the number has reduced using the new methodology so we are not comparing apples with apples with our expectations.

1 Like

No disrespect to Alan (who’s just the messenger here) but i don’t really understand the current website copy given his justification. If it about clarity, then the “more than 5 million” figure still has all the perceived problems over definition - it’s just not live.

It’s totally down to Monzo to publish or not publish, but I’d advise them to own it and be honest about why they’re doing it.

5 Likes

It’s why I think the messaging being portrayed to us is rather deceitful, if not an outright lie. I don’t think there’s any honesty to the proclaimed intention.

It’s clear they wanted to hide the exact figure, but I think they lied to us here about why they’re hiding it. I guess it looks better to spin it in a good way than to tell us they’re deciding to act in contradiction to their core values as a company. It’s the same sort of bad faith interaction I recall from their handling of the black culture icon poll. This to me suggests the problem lies with leadership at the community management level because someone there thinks it’s acceptable to take us for fools. I think it’s that that’s irked us more than the actual reigning in of transparency.

2 Likes

It is a shame it’s gone. But I think there’s also the other side to it from your point about transparency.

Previously (as I understand it), it just a counter of accounts. You had to have a personal account, so that’s what they counted. If you opened it, didn’t like the app and never touched it again, then you’re still a +1.

Now there are the nuances to that, are you really a customer if you got a card in 2016 and did nothing with it? Are you a customer if you moved your bills manually and haven’t touched the £5 you left in your account in a year?

You no longer need a personal account to get a business account, so if I have personal and business am I +2? What about if I share the business account with someone who isn’t with Monzo? Is this account already counted for me? Does it count for them too? Or are you doing the work to de-dupe me from both lists?

I’m sure these are all metrics they follow internally, but are they worth the time and effort to display an overall number for us to see? Probably not. And without that work, it’s not accurate. If they didn’t care about it being accurate or transparent or whatever, they could just add Rand(1-10) at y interval and we’d be absolutely non the wiser.

2 Likes

I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight unless I know whether Monzo have 6 million customers or not :grimacing:

2 Likes

Hey everyone, thanks for your patience – based on the metric that used to be on the site we reached 6M at 23:14 last night, February 9th :slightly_smiling_face:

Who won the sweepstake? :eyes:

Like we said before, because there are different ways to define this we aren’t anchoring to this one any more, which is why you wont see us change it on the site.

14 Likes

These guys were closest it seems!

3 Likes

Does @breville_monkey get a plushie now?

Also, I think I got pretty close too when you ignore my typo!

That was meant to say February 2+7=9!

3 Likes

Yeah not one for that cheater @bee who used their Monzo insider knowledge :wink: :rofl:

3 Likes

Even then, @breville_monkey was 1 minute closer!

2 Likes

I can’t imagine there will be a Race to Seven Million or beyond, a piece of Monzo culture consigned to the history books I fear. :sob:

7 Likes

:eyes:

No idea if Monzo advertising on the App Store is new or not, but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen one! Seen loads of other fintechs advertise here, but never Monzo. They show up as an ad if you search for apps like Starling Bank now too, or Chase. Just like Starling show up as an ad if you search for Monzo.


2 Likes

Oh yes! Well done on second place @bee :smirk:

1 Like