Posted by FatKat on 07/30/06 02:53

Technobarbarian wrote:
> "FatKat" <robynari@juno.com> wrote in message
> news:1154118327.287890.144560@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...>
>
> >Somehow, I don't see how a free program bundled with spyware has
> > generated all that much revenue, and I doubt user's habits have been
> > all that loyal in four years. I was a Kazaa user back then, but junked
> > it for WinMX, Shareazza, DC++ and now eMule. I sometimes shift between
> > WinMX, eMule and (infrequently now) Shareazza, but have never gone back
> > to Kazaa. Kazaa was often the app I heard people talk about when
> > warning about spyware-laden peer-share apps. As for ad revenue, there
> > are bigger companies out there sruggling to get internet ad-money, I
> > don't see how Sharman has managed to amass $100 mill, let alone what
> > they'd need to stay in business now that they're in the hole for that
> > much.
>
> In the p2p world loyalty doesn't count for much. It's the number of
> simultaneous users that generates ad revenue. Kazaa's simultaneous users are
> counted in the millions. Here's another old article:
> http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=298
>
> November 15, 2003
>
> "Advertising and bundled software many not sound like a recipe for making
> big money but in the P2P industry it can be enough for even the smaller P2P
> companies to rake in millions of dollars. Industry observers say that
> Sharman Networks' annual revenue is estimated to be $175 million and court
> documents show that much smaller players like StreamCast have earnt many
> millions from P2P. There is certainly some serious money to be made out of
> P2P."
>
> You do the math. It looks like they're still a few dollars ahead of the
> game to me.
>
Hundreds of millions of dollars? Are you for real? You can't do math
with imaginary numbers, only genuine profits. There's lots of talk
here about estimated earnings, but nothing to show for it, not in 2003,
not 2 and a half years of anti-spyware software later. Obviously Kazaa
didn't have enough to buy themsleves out of trouble or at least hold
out for a better deal. If $100 mill is supposed to be a settlement,
then Sharman would have to be worth at least slightly more than that.,
and then we'd be able to see just what people have been getting for
that money. Apparently not all that much.

Oh, by the way, just who has been advertising on Kazaa?

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