Metric · Hooked
Conversion by tenure (the smile graph)
Share of each sign-up cohort paying at month 0, 1, 2 and later. When habits form, the paying share rises with tenure; a flat line suggests pressure arrived before value or that devoted users have nothing deeper to buy.
Plain label: share paying by months since sign-upAlso known as: smile graph, tenure conversion, paid share by cohort age
Hooked's dated example: Evernote's paying share went from about 0.5% after month 1 to 11% by month 33 and 26% at month 42 (book, dated 2011). No smile at all is treated as a forced Pay leak [Analyst]. It feeds the Monetization Readiness verdict: charge for depth once devoted users exist. HK-MON01 (Hooked Ch.1)
Limits
What we don’t claim
- The Hook Model is a practical design tool, not a validated or complete theory of behavior.Hooked, Introduction
Sources
Hooked · Nir Eyal
Ch.1
Book content is paraphrased, never quoted at length. Last verified October 24, 2026.
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