July 9th, 2006
Good Read on Direct Revenue
Read the Business Week article on spyware and the crackdown on Direct Revenue, the Anthrax of the Internet. They quote my $2 billion figure for the size of the spyware market. I believe the spyware industry has slowed thanks to legal actions from Elliot Spitzer and one more factor. That factor is that there is a saturation point at which Windows machines just curl up and die. Windows just does not do well running more than a few things at time. With an average of 6-8 pieces of spyware trying to re-direct your browser, pop up ads, and record your every move, a user with an infected machine either figures out that spyware is the problem or buys a clean machine. We reached a steady state of total infections about a year ago with slow growth after that thanks to the growth of the Internet (3% a month).
Richard Stiennon is an industry consultant. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
