uTorrent and BitTorrent Serve Over 200 Million Ads Per Day

BitTorrent Inc, the parent company of the popular file-sharing client uTorrent, serves more than 200 million advertisements per day through its software. But despite the dazzling numbers, overall revenue is relatively modest as the ad rates are far from premium.

In 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.

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.