"Co-founder Kevin Systrom didn’t disclose daily active users during his fireside chat with TechCrunch editor Alexia Tsotsis."

That’s Instagram, “disclosing” that it had 27 million “registered users.”

Of course, “registered users” is not a metric that reflects anything real. It’s an empty number, without value. 

I’ll excuse Instagram because its a startup still fighting to survive. But Alexis Tsotsis knows better.

Good thing she’s not a real, like, journalist who should be pushing people to reveal things beyond what what they want her to say.

But I get it — Tsotsis needs people to click links to her stories, and she needs to make friends, so she’s not too concerned whether a number thrust out there by some startup actually means anything.

Still, why use your platform to report what a startup wants you to report?

Why should we care about anything you write if you can’t write anything real?

Harping a company’s line is not news. It’s just marketing, and you’re not being paid for it.