Month: December 2015

uTorrent and BitTorrent Serve Over 200 Million Ads Per Day

utorrent-logo-newIn an effort to increase its revenues BitTorrent Inc. added advertising to its uTorrent and Mainline clients three years ago.

While users can dive into the advanced settings and remove all ads, most don’t seem to be bothered by the occasional advertisement.

A few weeks ago BitTorrent Inc. invited its bundle publishers to use the ads to promote their content, referring them to their DIY advertising network.

“Artists and publishers can now advertise with BitTorrent, getting your work in front of millions of fans of music, movies and software around the world,” the company wrote in an email.

BitTorrent’s advertising platform lists several statistics that reveal some interesting details on users of the uTorrent and Mainline clients.

For example, the clients have roughly 170 million active users per month. The vast majority (92%) are male, with the prime demographic being educated and tech savvy 18-34 year-olds.

The advertising network also shows some interesting stats on the number of ad impressions the two clients have available. BitTorrent Inc. currently supports two ad formats which each have an estimated 3,397,615,000 views per month, based on statistics from the last 30 days.

That’s good for well over 100 million impressions per banner format per day, and over 200 million in total.

BitTorrent’s ad options

btads

While these numbers are certainly impressive, the revenue is relatively modest. BitTorrent sells its worldwide traffic for 7 cents per 1,000 views, which is one of the lowest tiers in the ad industry.

That said, if all banner spots were to be sold, BitTorrent Inc. would make over $14,000 per day, which is still pretty decent. It’s also possible that there are better rates for certain kinds of ads that are sold outside the advertising network.

In addition to banner advertising the uTorrent client also generates revenue through bundled software. BitTorrent Inc. doesn’t publish any figures but it’s known that these type of offers can reach $1 per install.

For some users these revenue sources are cause for complaints. BitTorrent Inc. is aware of this critique and has recently announced that it is exploring other options, including direct financial support from users.

For now, however, uTorrent and the Mainline client will continue to serve hundreds of millions of ads every day.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.


Source: TorrentFreak

PayPal Bans File-Sharing Classic Soulseek… After 14 Years

paypalPayPal is widely known for its aggressive stance towards BitTorrent sites, Usenet providers and file-hosting services, and it appears that P2P software is now receiving the same treatment.

Most recently, PayPal took action against Soulseek, a file-sharing network that’s mostly used for sharing music. Soulseek has been around for a decade and a half, when Napster was still in its prime and years before BitTorrent came around.

The Soulseek client that was targeted had been using PayPal to receive donations for 14 years. It never ran into trouble and PayPal even sent personal Christmas cards to the operators, but a few weeks ago things changed.

“PayPal suddenly and unceremoniously decided to end a very friendly working relationship with us that lasted 14 years,” Soulseek’s Roz and Nir Arbel explain.

The San Francisco based Soulseek team tried to get more information on the sudden change of heart, but without much luck.

“We have asked repeatedly for an explanation of this behavior, but we have been stonewalled at every turn, and have received only form emails telling us that we needed to be ‘pre-approved’ for an account,” they explain.

While PayPal doesn’t want to comment in detail, Soulseek appears to be classified under the “file-sharing” category now. These type of sites and services have to adhere to strict rules.

This policy has been in force since 2012 and has resulted in PayPal banning many file-sharing related services.

paypalp2p

In the case of Soulseek it would have been hard to ask for pre-approval as they were already a user many years before the policy came into effect.

That said, PayPal has made it clear that Soulseek is not allowed to use their services anymore.

“When we asked what we need to do to be pre-approved, they emailed back and said that they are ‘not granting pre-approval at this time’,” the Soulseek team notes.

Soulseek is not the first company to be banned by PayPal’s rigorous policy, and it won’t be the last. Another service that suffered the same fate recently is the TV-guide Myepisodes.com.

Even though the service doesn’t link to or host any infringing material, it was kicked off due to a “copyright issue” and because wasn’t “pre-approved.”

While PayPal hasn’t commented on the disconnections in public, it seems likely that it took action after complaints from copyright holders or industry groups, who fear that file-sharing related sites and services hurt their revenues.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.


Source: TorrentFreak

Steal This Show S01E02: Rebel Librarians & Pirate Academics

steal240In this second episode we discuss why pirates have always attracted extra-territorial law enforcement; the UK’s current anti-piracy campaign and the coolest anti-piracy campaigns of all time; and the cases again Libgen, Sci-Hub etc., and why they’re not just immoral, but also doomed to fail.

Finally we talk about a group of academics who are saying that file-sharing should be the future of knowledge creation – and are asking their peers to become peer-to-peers.

Steal This Show (STS) is a TF-supported initiative produced and hosted by Jamie King.

STS aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing copyright and file-sharing news. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary and analysis.

The guests for our news discussions will vary and we’ll aim to introduce voices from different backgrounds and persuasions. In addition to news, STS will also produce features interviewing some of the big innovators and minds, one-on-one.

Host: Jamie King

Guests: Lawrence Liang and Tomislav Medak

Produced by Jamie King
Edited & Mixed by Eric Bouthiller
Original Music by David Triana

Topics being discussed this week:

Custodians.online
Megaupload Programmer Already Freed From U.S. Prison
UK Anti-Piracy ‘Education’ Campaign Launched, Quietly
The Cases Against Sci-Hub and Libgen

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.


Source: TorrentFreak