BitTorrent clients on 13%+ of desktops (and growing!)
1.27.2008
In the hustle of the holidays, I skimmed this report but forgot to relish in its conclusion. According to Digital Music News, a research group with a statistically significant sample of desktop PCs claims that more than 13% of desktops have a BitTorrent client installed. That's awesome. And here's the market share amongst us client developers:
1. There are some ISPs who would have you believe that the BitTorrent userbase is less than a few %-points of their subscribers, and they generate somewhere near 40-50% of all Internet traffic. Not true. And ISPs, here's a newsflash: Your customers want this technology. Media companies want it too! And while more than 10% of your customers already have it, the BitTorrent client is going to be on 80%+ of desktops in 3 years.
2. The second most popular client is the Official BitTorrent client (commonly called "Mainline" in the P2P community). This was the first client and the fact that it's still in the top 2 is a testament to the strength of our brand and some great engineering at BitTorrent HQ.
3. But the client which came from behind -- the newest entrant in the list -- is also one that I started using as soon as I discovered it. I loved it so much that I got in touch with the developer and tried to recruit him heavily. I take some personal pride in identifying this great software early, and after hanging out with its author in France, at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 (which I might add is a GREAT and somewhat poetic place to negotiate with a budding P2P company), I just worked out the deal to acquire uTorrent AB. And my timing couldn't have been better:
Ludvig, hat's off to you brother, and here's to the next 50 million downloads of uTorrent!
A few points:
Rank Application % of PCs 1 uTorrent 5.56% 2 Mainline 2.28% 3 Azureus 2.11% 4 Bitcomet 1.89% 5 Bitlord 1.27%
1. There are some ISPs who would have you believe that the BitTorrent userbase is less than a few %-points of their subscribers, and they generate somewhere near 40-50% of all Internet traffic. Not true. And ISPs, here's a newsflash: Your customers want this technology. Media companies want it too! And while more than 10% of your customers already have it, the BitTorrent client is going to be on 80%+ of desktops in 3 years.
2. The second most popular client is the Official BitTorrent client (commonly called "Mainline" in the P2P community). This was the first client and the fact that it's still in the top 2 is a testament to the strength of our brand and some great engineering at BitTorrent HQ.
3. But the client which came from behind -- the newest entrant in the list -- is also one that I started using as soon as I discovered it. I loved it so much that I got in touch with the developer and tried to recruit him heavily. I take some personal pride in identifying this great software early, and after hanging out with its author in France, at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 (which I might add is a GREAT and somewhat poetic place to negotiate with a budding P2P company), I just worked out the deal to acquire uTorrent AB. And my timing couldn't have been better:
Ludvig, hat's off to you brother, and here's to the next 50 million downloads of uTorrent!
