Kazaa Claims 230 Million Downloads; Most-Downloaded Program Ever

SlowwHand · May 23, 2003, 17:28

Between Kazaa-lite and Winmx, I can find just about all I want.
This is a lot of downloads.

Kazaa claims 230 million downloads
Fri May 23,11:30 AM ET

By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Mercury News

If the most powerful emotion is neither love nor hate -- it's got to be the desire to get stuff for free.

That's what one must conclude from an announcement expected today from Sharman Networks, which says its Kazaa Media Desktop has been downloaded 230 million times -- setting the record as the most popular software application ever distributed over the Internet.

In just over a year, the software used to download free music over the Internet has surpassed all other applications distributed through CNet's Download.com site -- including ICQ, the predecessor to AOL's Instant Messenger, and WinZip, the software utility used to open compressed files.

"It's a horrifying number, especially given there are 106 million U.S. households. It shows you the worldwide breadth of file-sharing," said P.J. McNealy, research director for GartnerG2 in San Jose. "It captures the phenomenon that is the Internet. That it has tremendous explosive powers."

Claims questioned

Kazaa's success even dwarfs the most highly publicized software introduction in history -- the debut of Microsoft's Windows 95 computer operating system. It sold 40 million copies in the first year, making it the fastest-selling software ever.

It may even eclipse the number of downloads during the browser wars of 1994-99, when every three to six months brought new, downloadable versions of the Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Precise figures are difficult to obtain, but in 2002, about 66 million U.S. home PC users relied on Explorer, compared with 16 million for Navigator.

Some analysts questioned Kazaa's claims -- noting that Download.com merely points visitors to Sharman Networks' computers and tallies the referrals going through its digital turnstile. It doesn't independently verify the numbers.

"Numbers like this are hard to compare," said Chris Le Tocq, an analyst with Guernsey Research in Los Altos. "The best you can walk away with is, yes, there are a lot of people out there downloading music."

Copyright disputes

While clearly an imperfect counting system, Kazaa has nonetheless blown past perennial favorites like WinZip, which Download.com has ranked in the top five for 344 weeks, according to the site's director, Kelly Green. And it is maintaining a pace of more than 4 million downloads a week. "Give them the chocolate bar," said Le Tocq. "They win."

The recording industry nonetheless found the statistics disturbing.

"It is shameful that these people would actually brag about their success at enabling the theft of other people's creative works," said a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites).

"Would they have been so successful without the copyrighted music that tens of thousands of hardworking committed people have labored to produce and not earned a single penny for."

Spiffor · May 23, 2003, 18:03

Great news

As much as I loathe Kazaa as a P2P progam (WinMX is much better and doesn't have the 'dumbproof' feel attached to it), I am very glad so many people enjoy surfing the tide of abolishing the copy industry (i.e disk industry and such).

The copy industry is a thing that would already belong to the past if it wasn't for the RIAA and its priviledges / efficient lobbying. Effectively, in our societies where copying information has become effortless, the copy industry has no place anymore. I'm very glad programs like Kazaa help burying it

Stefu · May 23, 2003, 18:05

That's a lot of spyware.

Quote:

If the most powerful emotion is neither love nor hate -- it's got to be the desire to get stuff for free.

I'd remove the boldened parts.

Pekka · May 23, 2003, 18:06

Can't be.. how about Winamp? Didn't read the whole post though, sorry if that was covered. I still claim that Winamp is more downloaded then Kazaa?

SlowwHand · May 23, 2003, 18:07

When I read that, I recognized the fit for a recent poll on emotions.

Traianvs · May 23, 2003, 18:18

Quote:

Originally posted by Pekka
Can't be.. how about Winamp? Didn't read the whole post though, sorry if that was covered. I still claim that Winamp is more downloaded then Kazaa?

Nah lots of dumbasses don't even know winamp, they still use bollox windows media player, or perhaps realplayer...

I myself download the winamp 2.81 btw as these frikking new winamp versions are too complicated.. can't seem to find what I want there...

2.81 plain and simple!

SlowwHand · May 23, 2003, 18:21

Winamp is the player I use.

monkspider · May 23, 2003, 18:22

Go Kazaa! :B:

Traianvs · May 23, 2003, 18:31

Quote:

Originally posted by monkspider
Go Kazaa! :B:

dude kazaa sucks ballz

The next l33t prog is Direct connect (or dc++)

It's way better than kazaa. Concept: Connect to a server, and say there are 100 people in it. The host has a few demands however, for example enabling minimum 3 simultaneous uploads, and an amount of data to share. This could be 10 GB for example.. All you have to do then is click on a username to see all the file this person has shared, of course, you can also do "searches" if you are looking for something specific.... But I personally prefer browsing through those HDs. I often stumble into something really cool I would never had thought of before.. Or when downloading music, I never know what o search for, if I actually see anything that interests me I just download it...

I have to say though that I only use directconnect at LANs, because for some reason I can't seem to get any servers with my cable connection (seems to be blocked), and of course, traffic is more in the genre of 1-10 MB/s

kazaa is slow and is only useful for finding unusual or rare files...

JCG · May 23, 2003, 18:54

emule's what I use for the big and/or obscure files that I know I'll spend several days downloading anyway, while kazaa's for the fairly popular stuff...

Skanky Burns · May 24, 2003, 06:05

Quote:

"Numbers like this are hard to compare," said Chris Le Tocq, an analyst with Guernsey Research in Los Altos. "The best you can walk away with is, yes, there are a lot of people out there downloading music."

That is stupid. Not everyone uses file-sharing to download music. There are other file-types to download as well.

Eli · May 24, 2003, 06:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Trajanus

dude kazaa sucks ballz

The next l33t prog is Direct connect (or dc++)

It's way better than kazaa. Concept: Connect to a server, and say there are 100 people in it. The host has a few demands however, for example enabling minimum 3 simultaneous uploads, and an amount of data to share. This could be 10 GB for example.. All you have to do then is click on a username to see all the file this person has shared, of course, you can also do "searches" if you are looking for something specific.... But I personally prefer browsing through those HDs. I often stumble into something really cool I would never had thought of before.. Or when downloading music, I never know what o search for, if I actually see anything that interests me I just download it...

I have to say though that I only use directconnect at LANs, because for some reason I can't seem to get any servers with my cable connection (seems to be blocked), and of course, traffic is more in the genre of 1-10 MB/s

kazaa is slow and is only useful for finding unusual or rare files...

DC doesnt give you enough choice.

Even on the largest servers, the amount of information to choose from is limited comparing to Kazaa or eMule.

Maybe there are some dedicated private hubs with people with good connections and big collections, but the public servers are crap.

reds4ever · May 24, 2003, 07:31

Quote:

Originally posted by Pekka
Can't be.. how about Winamp? Didn't read the whole post though, sorry if that was covered. I still claim that Winamp is more downloaded then Kazaa?

A couple of months ago my HD threw a wobbler and i had to reformat. Once I'd got the drivers sorted the first thing i did was D/L Kazaa and get stuff like winAmp and winzip off Kazaa. That way you can just leave everything you want queueing, it saves clicking around CNet all afternoon trying find bits and pieces.

Dis · May 28, 2003, 01:40

all these num nuts and I can't find a single Dark Angel song

I think people are getting stingy about what they share with Kazaa- that is their major flaw. I can understand the reasoning though. Because the record companies are going after the people that share the most files. Because of that I have been reluctant to share all of my files.

Damn them record companies. Damn them all to hell!

SlowwHand · May 28, 2003, 01:43

That's why I have 2 different file sharing programs.
Kazaa and Winmx.
Seems 1 has what the other doesn't.

Dis · May 28, 2003, 02:11

I never really figured out how to use winmx

I could search for songs, and then queue them. But I'm on the waiting list for songs for like hours- and then it downloads slow as hell