Oh The Business Models That Sneaky Installs Allow
from the do-they-not-get-it? dept
With all the stories about various adware companies trying to go legit there's one element that always seems to be ignored: almost all of these "legit" business models are built off of the data they got from surreptitious installs. Claria has been the worst offender here. A few months back, they announced their plan to do targeted advertising arbitrage (part of the reason Microsoft was so interested in them), but no one wanted to point out that the data they would use to do this came from the sneaky installs. Now, they're announcing another new, more "legit" business model by offering customized search offerings. Again, the only way they can do this is because of all the data they have on people who never wanted their application in the first place. The products may seem more legit, but the entire reason they work is because of their sneaky practices over the years.
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You sir are a Bozo
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Re: You sir are a Bozo
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If they really want to go legit...
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No data collection
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Re: No data collection
It would be great if you've cleaned up whatever problems there were, but it still seems like a portion of your business model was based on surreptitious installs. So, while you might not collect data, there clearly have been surreptitious installs, which are a big part of the problem. If only 13% of your users know they're using your product, it raises some questions about how viable the business model is if you really are transparent about things.
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Re: No data collection
Obviously, it's likely that this was done by rogue affiliates -- but that's a result of the business model you've set up involving affiliates, which encourages this kind of activity.
So, it still remains to be seen what kind of business model is left over if the installs really are completely transparent.
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Re: No data collection
There continues to be a lot of churn of our installed base, which is due mostly to anti-spyware products that routinely wipe WhenU products off machines, often *before* a single ad is shown. The implementation of best practices is GOOD for our business model: a more qualified, truly opted-in audience is more attractive to advertisers, and as our installed base became smaller and more qualified, the online advertising pie has grown MUCH larger. The biggest hurdle we face is overcoming the unwillingness of many (but not all) anti-spyware vendors to recognize that WhenU products and practices have truly evolved.
Anti-spyware vendors have a vested interest in continuing to flag and flog as many "threats" as possible, because it helps them sell more
product. The fact is that WhenU products are extremely well branded, every ad announces itself from WhenU and has a toll free 800# prominently on its face. We are easy to uninstall using Windows Add/Remove (of course you may have to uninstall the free software we support too) - so consumers really do not need to pay for special tools or programs to remove WhenU software.
An ASW vendors' survey of their own customers is not the best gauge of user acceptance of WhenU products, particularly when these users haven't even seen WhenU ads! We have encouraged this particular vendor to redo that survey so that it is more scientific and representative of our current business practices. I can tell you that we've seen significant growth this year from some distribution partners... so although (according to the recent Pew study) fewer users report downloading ad-supported software, many are more than willing to download software supported by WhenU products, which provide exceptionally clear notification - especially since ours is the only monetizing component in their bundle.
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