Filesharing Report Shows Explosive Growth for uTorrent
Written by Ernesto on April 26, 2008New data on the ever changing P2P landscape shows that the number of uTorrent users worldwide has more than doubled compared to last year. The BitTorrent client is most popular in Europe - with an install rate of 11.6% - and least popular in the United States, where 5.1% of the PCs have uTorrent installed.
The data presented here are based on a sample of over a million PCs (Windows only), and were gathered by PC Pitstop.
A few months we already reported that uTorrent overtook Azureus’ position as the most installed BitTorrent application, and this trend continues. LimeWire’s popularity on the other hand is declining worldwide. Nonetheless, it is still by far the most installed filesharing application.
LimeWire going down, uTorrent on the rise
From December 2006 to December 2007 LimeWire lost approximately 25% of its user base. By the end of 2007, 17% of all PCs in the United States had LimeWire installed, compared to 23.3% last year. Similar drops occurred in Europe, Latin America, and the rest of the world. The most loyal LimeWire users come from Australia, where the install rate is 27%, only a slight decrease compared to the 30.4% in 2006.
The uTorrent user base on the other hand is rapidly growing. uTorrent installs more than doubled in nearly every part of the world in the last 12 months. The BitTorrent client is most popular in Europe (11.6%), as can be seen from the graph below.
As a result of uTorrent’s growth, other BitTorrent clients such as Azureus and BitComet are going downhill. Azureus and BitComet now have an average install rate of 1.4% and 1.7% respectively.
Regional Differences
The regional differences in popularity of p2p applications are also worth mentioning. The data show that uTorrent is far more popular in Europe (11.6%) than in the United States (5.1%). Limewire on the other hand is well-liked among Aussies (27.0%) and Canadians (27.2%), but has less followers in Latin America.
Emule is still very popular in Latin America, where 16% of the PCs have the application installed compared to only 1% in the United States and 3% in Europe.
Home vs. Business PCs
Unsurprisingly, P2P applications are more frequently installed on home computers versus PCs at the workplace. Nevertheless, almost one out of five PCs at work (18%) have at least one P2P application installed. For home computer this is little over 1 in three (36%)
P2P Market share 2008
We also compiled a pie chart of the market share of the different P2P applications as of January 1st 2008. Please note that the data is a bit skewed since most of the data comes from participants who were based in the United States. LimeWire is without a doubt the winner here.
Finally, we want to make it clear though that install rates do not equal usage. The fact that someone installed a P2P client does not mean that they actually use it.
Based on the amount of traffic that is generated by each P2P application, uTorrent would be the absolute winner.
Previously: Louis Vuitton Sues Darfur Fundraiser for Copyright Infringement
Next: Pivotal Canadian BitTorrent Showdown Looming
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Azureus fanboys are as bad as mac fanboys.
http://www.ubuntu.com/
I’m lovin’ it…….
Isn’t limewire being monitored?…
… but only idiots install programs that call home and gather information.
Right?
What does that say about the 11% of people in the U.K.
Fuck you torrentfreak.
What about Transmission? It is awesome.
Limewire is for 14yo girls looking for radio songs and utorrent is replacing limewire in popularity.
I think that says it all. lol!
utorrent ftl
wonder how ares stacks up? when i can get it to connect, which is hardly ever, it works well. has alot of rare songs on it. but can get slow sometimes.
It just goes to show Europe has a higher class of nub than ol’ Yankee Doodle land.
I can’t believe I am reading this an article on TorrentFreak, which I like because of interviewing people I know
from the scene. Moreover given 50% of the comments I feel like I am on the birthday party of the kindergarden’s
dummest kid.
Not only is the article done without care and a total lack of proof:
1. the graphs say “Austalia”.
2. “A few months we already reported that uTorrent overtook Azureus’ position…”
3. Based on the amount of traffic that is generated by each P2P application, uTorrent would be the absolute
winner.
but also the data, the way the data is presented and the conclusions are totally unscientific. I can only assume
the author Ernesto (ernesto@torrentfreak.com) is a big/paid fan of uTorrent and wants to spread his opinion.
Given alone the fact that he didn’t mention that uTorrent isn’t open source so nobody can check what is really
going on on your computer (no you can’t be rule out every security breach), is irresponsible. Plus the fact that
he didn’t mention who runs uTorrent nowadays (BitTorrent, Inc.) and their affiliations is totally naive!
In any respect the article reads like a bloody advertisement flyer. Especially people are tricked in liking this
article by putting the fight of David against Goliath (the tiny little just uTorrent against Big Fileshare Corp.
Limewire). It is the opposite. Limewire faught off the IP industry several times for the sake of their users,
uTorrent was bought by a company who basically is the IP industry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent%2C_Inc.).
Most people here dislike Limewire so they are tricked into believing and liking the article and its conclusions.
The comments here proof this given their arrogance (only stupid teens use Limewire - I am a *real* pirate, I use
uTorrent, harhar). No you are not clever or cool or a pirate by using uTorrent but there is a big chance that
you are the opposite of all those things!
Given what I said here I know for sure from people involved in the process that there is a big can of woop-ass
to be opened for uTorrent users this summer. From nearly exclusive useage for file sharing, I stepped down
myself using bitorrent completely over a month ago for good reasons. Perhaps I come back after summer - we will
see.
Anyway, this article should be taken down or at least a second article written asking the tough questions about
uTorrent, BitTorrent, Inc. (who by the way sugar-coat their own Wikipedia entry and keep negative voices out)
and their business model behind it.
As others have said, its not smart to rely on software to allegedly break a law with that is closed source and hence which you cannot trust.
I use azureus. Its not perfect, but ti has a linux client, and has a great many features unlike some others. Personally I’m really not happy about vuze and it going all ‘commercial’ tho.
Using Utorrent just doesn’t seem smart however; getting into bed with MPAA then getting dominant market share looks VERY VERY suspicious to me…
[quote comment="361277"]As others have said, its not smart to rely on software to allegedly break a law with that is closed source and hence which you cannot trust.
I use azureus. Its not perfect, but ti has a linux client, and has a great many features unlike some others. Personally I’m really not happy about vuze and it going all ‘commercial’ tho.
Using Utorrent just doesn’t seem smart however; getting into bed with MPAA then getting dominant market share looks VERY VERY suspicious to me…[/quote]
Have to agree really, I don’t believe BitTorrent is in a good place at the moment. Seems too many if its eggs are locked up in commercial ventures. Wanna guess where that’s gonna go?
Personally I’d like to see a nice clean and efficient open-source client come about, Emule-style. I’ve tried a few alternatives to uTorrent here though I’ve not been taken by any so far. Many seem sluggish, coded in Python, or Java, neither being known for speed and efficiency, are buggy, and lack features. I mean no disrespect to the people that took the time to create them though.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but even if utorrent is collecting information about what you’ve downloaded, they wouldn’t be able to do anything with it because it was obtained illegally.
“Real Pirates” Do not even use BT. I’ll just leave it at that.
[quote comment="360959"]I’m not too familiar with BitTorrent Inc. All I know is that I cannot use uTorrent anymore (paranoid), because I’ve been caught twice by my cable provider for downloading a movie. One more strike and I’m out.[/quote]
And yet you reward your cable provider for shitting all over you by continuing to subscribe.
Good work. People like you are the reason that ISPs can get away with bullying their own customers.
[quote comment="360959"]I’m not too familiar with BitTorrent Inc. All I know is that I cannot use uTorrent anymore (paranoid), because I’ve been caught twice by my cable provider for downloading a movie. One more strike and I’m out.[/quote]
It’s not the cable provider who ‘caught you’, it’s media company companies in the torrent swarms you participate in.
[quote comment="361418"]And yet you reward your cable provider for shitting all over you by continuing to subscribe.
Good work. People like you are the reason that ISPs can get away with bullying their own customers.[/quote]
The ISPs are obliged to respond and you know that.
I use utorrent because it is simple, fast and I get all that I need from it. I’m not worried about getting caught by anyone tbh since my country isn’t persecuting anyone who shares file.
I think people who are arguing over which client is better have limited intelligence. And people who argue that “THIS IS FOR TEH NOOBS, MY PROGRAM RULZ” are mentally challenged in some way.
Use whatever program you like, as long as it gets you what you want.
[quote comment="360571"]I’ve installed both LimeWire and uTorrent ^^
But eh… LimeWire is for the fourteen year old girl who heard a nice song on the radio or from a friend, and they have no idea that when they download they should not close LimeWire so they stop sharing.
On the other hand, uTorrent is for the real pirates who knows how to seed. So it’s only natural that uTorrent generates more traffic than LimeWire.
So I’m kinda a middle-thing between fourteen year old girl (even though I’m male) and a real pirate I guess.[/quote]
and their are people further up then us :(
[quote comment="360732"]Australians do not havea s much bandwidth to spare as alot of other countries, and most of the filesharers are 14 year old girls :P
So they download their NUMBA ONE KEWL HITSS! off teh limegays.
Limewire is so full of fakes and malware its no good…..u torrent ftw
slsk for music[/quote]
Your a drop kick..
that is all
I personally use Deluge, although unstable in some parts (fast resume, ratios, sometimes random crashes) because its still 0.5, it can withstand throttling much better than other clients out there (got 1.3 Mbps down on sandvined Comcast before, although it was a popular torrent, don’t expect wonders), and is lightweight, as is utorrent (did I mention its licensed under GPL and is not owned by BitTorrent Inc.)
Can’t wait until deluge finally is finished though, it’d [probably] be way better than utorrent.
Why is there no FioS option in my area??? Only 2 towns away and there is :( Hate how Comcast has [practically] a monopoly here where I am (like I’m going to use dial-up/slower things).
[quote comment="361110"]… but only idiots install programs that call home and gather information.
Right?
[/quote]
Well, only idiots live in a country that makes it legal to sue people for file sharing.
Moron
MPAA etc can use Azureus (or most other BT client for that matter) to pursue file-sharers, using the logs that they create. If you’re living in the US and are smart you should use some kind of IP filter (e.g. PeerGuardian), though even this doesn’t mean you are 100% safe. Still if you get sued it’s a bit like “losing” the lottery if you know what I mean ;-)
Like some have pointed out, Limewire (or eMule etc) are good for finding rarities - I like fairly obscure reggae tunes and it’s difficult to find live torrents for that kind of stuff, the P2P clients are better tbh.
Usenet is much faster and safer than other methods anyway as you only download and are therefore not making anything available. It requires a little more investment of time and money to set up but, if you’ve never tried it before, you’ll be amazed! It spanks BT for download speeds!
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