Average revenue per user
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Average revenue per user (sometimes average revenue per unit) usually abbreviated to ARPU is a measure used primarily by consumer communications and networking companies, it is the total revenue divided by the number of subscribers.
This term is used by companies that offer subscription services to clients for example, telephone carriers, Internet service providers, and hosts. It is a measure of the revenue generated by one customer phone, pager, etc., per unit time, typically per year or month. In mobile telephony, ARPU includes not only the revenues billed to the customer each month for usage, but also the revenue generated from incoming calls, payable within the regulatory interconnection regime.
This provides the company a granular view at a per user or unit basis and allows it to track revenue sources and growth
There is a trend[citation needed] by telecommunications and Internet companies and their suppliers to sell extra services to users and a lot of the promotion that is used by these companies talks of increased ARPU for these operators. It typically manifests[citation needed] in the form of value-added services such as entertainment being sold to customers especially in markets where the primary service offered to the customer, such as the telephony or Internet service, is sold at a commodity rate.
A related (but less used) measure is AMPU, or average margin per user.
ARPU is widely used by Internet Protocol television (IPTV) service providers.[citation needed]
