How to estimate the number of people sharing accounts for your app or website.

Account sharing is a big problem for companies. Rupt found that up to 69% of users are sharing their accounts with others. This means that companies are losing out on a lot of revenue. But how can you estimate the number of people sharing accounts for your app or website? This blog will walk you through exactly how Rupt does that.

1. Define what an account sharer is

The first step in estimating the number of people sharing accounts is to define what an account sharer is. For example, if you have a family plan, you may allow up to 5 people to share an account. In this case, you would define an account sharer as someone who is sharing an account with more than 5 people.

But most companies don't have a family plan. So they would define an account sharer as someone who is sharing an account with more than one person.

It's not easy to detect how many people are using a single account. Rupt uses a multitude of signals to determine if more than one person is using an account. These signals include the number of unique devices connected, frequency of access, IP information, impossible travel signals, and more.

But even with all these signals, it's still not possible to know for sure how many people are using a single account. So the last resort signal is to look at the number of devices connected to an account. If there are more than X devices connected to an account, then it's likely that more than one person is using the account. Where X is the number of devices you allow per account.

2. Calculate the number of accounts being shared

Once you've defined what an account sharer is, you can calculate the number of people sharing accounts as follows:

1. Add the number of all active people sharing each account. Where active means they've used the account in the last Y days (where Y is the number of days you want to look back). Remember, Rupt can tell you how many people are using each account.
2. Add the number of accounts that have more than X devices connected to them. Where X is the number of devices you allow per account, but exclude accounts and devices that are already counted in step 1.
3. Multiply each account from step 2 by Z where Z is the number of devices not counted in step 1 over the number of devices allowed per account. For example, if you allow 3 devices per account, and you have an account with 5 devices connected, then you would subtract devices that are already counted in step 1 (let's say 2 devices were determined to belong to other people), and multiply the remaining devices (3 devices) by Z (3 devices / 3 devices allowed per account = 1). So you would multiply 3 devices by 1 to get 3 people sharing this account. NOTE: You can either floor or ceil the result of this multiplication. For example, if you have an account with 4 devices connected, you can either count it as 1 or 2 sharers. Rupt recommends floor because it's more conservative.
4. Add the results from steps 1 and 3 to get the total number of people sharing accounts.

Complicated? Yes! That's why Rupt exists to do all this for you. Rupt will tell you how many people are using each account, and how many devices are connected to each account. It will also tell you how many people are sharing accounts, and how many devices are connected to accounts.

3. Final thoughts

If you're going to going to embark on this journey, here are a few recommendations we've learned from working with many companies:

1. Err on the side of caution. If you're not sure if an account is being shared, then don't count it as a sharer. It's better to underestimate than overestimate.
2. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Do this calculation every month. You'll be surprised how much it changes over time. Some companies have seen the number of people sharing accounts double in just a few months.
3. Don't aim for perfection. It's impossible to know for sure how many people are sharing accounts. So don't try to get it perfect. Just get it close enough to make reasonably informed decision.
4. Don't forget to take action. Once you know how many people are sharing accounts, you need to take action. Rupt can help you convert account sharers into paying customers.
5. Don't forget to measure the results. Once you take action, you need to measure the results. Rupt can help you measure the impact of your actions.

If you're interested in learning more about account sharing monetization, book a call with us or sign up for a free trial and start monetizing account sharing today.