

Y Combinator-Backed InstallMonetizer Is A Selective Ad Network For Desktop - dmoney67
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/14/y-combinator-backed-installmonetizer-is-a-selective-ad-network-for-desktop-software/

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patio11
For those who were unaware this market existed: if you hypothetically
distributed a downloadable application, you'd be bored to tears of sales reps
(or spambots) from Pay Per Install advertising companies attempting to sign
you up for their platform. The going rate was about $1 a download (n.b. that
figure is very outdated -- probably less these days). This is -- again, not
talking about the YC company here -- for encouraging customers to either
change their search engine provider to one who pays the PPI network, install a
toolbar in their browser or desktop which either shows ads or gets searches
(more commonly), or just going ahead and rooting the user.

I'll confess that I haven't always been a model of politeness when responding
to these sales pitches.

This is one of the many, many avenues on the Internet advertising chain by
which billions of dollars is transferred between large, publicly well-regarded
companies and six layers of intermediaries and... folks who the large, well-
regarded companies would never, ever, ever do business with.

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lukeholder
I am sure everyone has had a slimy experience with desktop applications
(usually windows based) sneaking or including advertising. I for sure have
spent way too much time cleaning adware off family computers.

My comment about this startup would be: "what makes you any different, other
than your promise to keep it professional and clean from the junk" - because
its a slippery slope and %99 of the time the users won't know the difference
between your ads and the slimy ones.

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markkat
_“We looked really really hard to find legitimate sources of income [from free
downloads],”_

Don't?

In all seriousness, should a source of income from hosting free downloads
exist? The very nature of the consumer's expectations is why it is so hard to
find a legitimate source of income. If you can't make it work without
deception, then don't host free downloads.

This is a problem with free software. It's free to make, free to use, but has
a distribution cost.

