uTorrent Becomes Ad-Supported to Rake in Millions

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12.08.12, 00:07
BrianBosworth

uTorrent Becomes Ad-Supported to Rake in Millions

Quote:

With well over 125 million active users a month uTorrent is by far the most used BitTorrent client. Because of its success the software is also the main source of revenue for San Francisco based parent company BitTorrent Inc. It is estimated that the company currently generates between $15 and $20 million in annual revenue but this figure is expected to rise after it was quietly announced that uTorrent will become ad-supported.

The change was quietly made public in a forum post yesterday where it is framed as “a fresh approach to creating a no-nonsense and free torrenting experience.”

After nearly seven years this is the first time that advertisers will be able to reach millions of uTorrent users directly from within the client itself.

Until now nearly all revenue came from the toolbar which users can install optionally when uTorrent is first downloaded. However, BitTorrent Inc. sees the need to experiment with other revenue sources with “sponsored torrents” being added for all users in an upcoming release.

“You are all very familiar with how we have paid the bills so far. These new changes mark our next step towards finding that difficult balance between keeping our lights on and providing a positive user experience,” they explain.

The sponsored torrents will appear in a highly visible spot on top of the list of downloads and will be used to promote content from advertisers. They can’t be “turned off,” but users have the option to click away individual ads.

“This new build will display a featured torrent at the top of your torrent list. This featured torrent space will be used to offer a variety of different types of content. We are working towards bringing you offers that are relevant to you.”

uTorrent Becomes Ad-Supported to Rake in Millions | TorrentFreak
12.08.12, 00:14
dinobot

Bad news, folks, just use older versions:smile:
12.08.12, 02:17
anon

uTorrent has already been going downhill at a fast pace, but turning it into adware should be the finishing touch. I'm considering switching to another client.
12.08.12, 15:03
cirulilu

instead of fixing the bugs and improving the client they concentrate on how to make more money. utorrent is turning into bloatware, they should probably change the name since it's not that micro anymore
12.08.12, 15:47
Mihai

Quote:

Originally Posted by cirulilu

instead of fixing the bugs and improving the client they concentrate on how to make more money. utorrent is turning into bloatware, they should probably change the name since it's not that micro anymore

Well it's still more micro than any other client. :tongue:
12.08.12, 19:53
hellman

well it was expected... when something goes popular then money comes into account
13.08.12, 02:48
SealLion

Yup. I think I as well may also decided to switch bittorrent clients. A couple of things to consider. Older versions don't carry this nonsense with uT newest version. Older versions have 2 things for consideration. (1.) Not all trackers accept older versions such as v. 1.6x, 1.7X, or even v. 1.8X. Though some still do. (2) they are definitly smaller than the current and continuing to bloat newer versions.

Vuze and other alternative clients might see an increase in their usage after this but it may or may not be long before even those other clients might take the same route as uT is taking now. Nevertheless, it's pretty crappy news overall to see software like this becoming adware. What a bummer.
13.08.12, 09:27
mabuse

Who gives a f*ck?

1) a torrent client is nothing you work with. It sits in the tray and loads stuff, you only open it once a day or a week or so, to add new torrents or have a peek at the status. If you see one ad-banner a day or week, how does it hurt you?

2) If it does - hold your old version. I don't know why everybody always had to have the newest, latest software. I never upgrade software unless there is really an important new funktion oder error-korrection. Could only get worse.
14.08.12, 12:12
Lucius

that's very bad news and it gives us some view about what the developers concentrate on ! , anyway about 70% of uT users use old versions of uT
and I'm very happy with vuze xD
14.08.12, 20:59
Mihai

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tattah

that's very bad news and it gives us some view about what the developers concentrate on ! , anyway about 70% of uT users use old versions of uT
and I'm very happy with vuze xD

Not really, because every developer is probably concentrated on making a living first. Freeware is great but doesn't feed the children if you know what I mean. Plus, there are few those who can resist the temptation of making loads of money from the hard work they put in.
14.08.12, 21:41
cirulilu

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mihai

Not really, because every developer is probably concentrated on making a living first. Freeware is great but doesn't feed the children if you know what I mean. Plus, there are few those who can resist the temptation of making loads of money from the hard work they put in.

15-20 millions a year are not enough for a company with a single piece of software? more money is the priority for the programmers, ignoring the requests on their forums for fixing the bugs and improving some features.
what if anybody can purchase an ad for sponsored torrent. there are so many fake torrents already and giving the fake uploaders possibility to have an ad in the torrent client will make thing worse.
15.08.12, 11:54
Mihai

Quote:

Originally Posted by cirulilu

15-20 millions a year are not enough for a company with a single piece of software? more money is the priority for the programmers, ignoring the requests on their forums for fixing the bugs and improving some features.
what if anybody can purchase an ad for sponsored torrent. there are so many fake torrents already and giving the fake uploaders possibility to have an ad in the torrent client will make thing worse.

Not really. If you had the chance to make more would you stop at that sum?
Also, I'm sure there will be a way to not allow fake torrents as ads because that will just make them look bad.
16.08.12, 18:01
BrianBosworth

After receiving so much negative feedback in the utorrent forums, they have decided to give the users an opt out option. This is a statement from their forums moderator:

Quote:

We hear all of your concerns and comments. And from the very first post, I said we would listen and adjust as needed.

Response: This being an experiment, we’ve previously discussed whether or not to provide an offer opt-out. Given your feedback, we’ve decided to go ahead with this in the upcoming version. Each of you will have the opportunity to see and experience offers for yourselves. If you don’t like what you
see, simply opt out entirely.

Having said that, we stand behind offers as a reasonable trade-off to providing our users with valuable, free software, and we will continue to pursue them. Our goal is, frankly, to provide a better experience than we do with our current offer mix. Of course this is not an overnight change.

Thanks to everybody who offered their feedback, and to those who stuck around to work with us constructively and faithfully throughout this process. Your feedback has been
invaluable.

uTorrent Changes: A response to your feedback (Page 1) / Announcements / µTorrent Community Forums
16.08.12, 19:20
slikrapid

@article:

Quote:

The change was quietly made public in a forum post yesterday where it is framed as “a fresh approach to creating a no-nonsense and free torrenting experience.”

lol

Quote:

After nearly seven years

could be they estimated that the number of users has reached the 'ceiling area' (where the continuous increase has significantly slowed down), the software has started to decline (bloatware), it still has an advantage over the competition, an overall stagnation in torrenting-related things ... so they might be trying to squeeze as much as they can while they can and with some 'luck' they might even ride it out

Quote:

We are working towards bringing you offers that are relevant to you.”

u2? noes!
and in order to do that they must know as much as they can about the user (just like google or any other company heavily interested in advertizing)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dinobot

just use older versions

have been for a long time now

Quote:

Originally Posted by mabuse

If you see one ad-banner a day or week, how does it hurt you?

thats how it starts, allow them 1 banner, soon you'll be overrun by them (variation of: 'give somebody an inch and they'll take a mile')

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mihai

If you had the chance to make more would you stop at that sum?

why not stop (or more correctly: choose a moderate level without losing integrity)? whats there to gain besides 'more of the same'

btw. i wonder whether afterwards we'll see something like: uTorrent.v3.x.Cr*cked-F*ckAds ;)

as for the opt-out option, it should be opt-in, like:

'would you like to use our excellent fresh & innovative new feature with extremely useful verified ads from trusted sources...?' hell no :P
19.08.12, 04:48
SealLion

Quote:

Originally Posted by slikrapid

@article:
.....
'would you like to use our excellent fresh & innovative new feature with extremely useful verified ads from trusted sources...?' hell no :P

LOL, slik. Now that's my kind of answer.