Why Free? How will Comodo Make Money?

[Guest]

[Melih]

So assuming everything goes as planned, Comodo will spend a lot of money to start it but in the end Comodo will gain millions of paying customers.

Well desktop security will always be free. Its the businesses who will come and buy our pay for products like SSL certificates etc.

Melih

[Júštiñ™]

Yes I understand that, that is what I ment, sorry for the confusion.

[Staind]

Melih,

Although your intentions are good I think there is a better story (or theory that I have) as to why Comodo is free.  

Currently, in terms of market share, Verisign is ahead of you in selling SSL certificates.  Their company is old and trusted as a modern security vendor.  Their SSL license of course is much more expensive than your own.  Your goal of course is to steal away their market share and increase your own.  This is a difficult task, but I think you are on the right track - by developing a security suite (antivirus, firewall, and antispyware) you are hoping it will be extremely popular among general internet users.  I think you would be expecting something similar to Avast's popularity - atleast something that would grab the attention of security administrators and ITs in corporations.  Now, they see your own license which is significantly less expensive than Verisign's and the fact that your security products are trusted worldwide; hence the creation of the trusted brand name "Comodo".  This will of course spread Comodo's market share through the licensing of increased SSL. 

On a side note, I do love both the antivirus and the firewall.  They are extremely well designed and compatible products.  And, I look forward to working with new users via this forum.

-Staind

[Melih]

Melih,

Although your intentions are good I think there is a better story (or theory that I have) as to why Comodo is free.  

Currently, in terms of market share, Verisign is ahead of you in selling SSL certificates.  Their company is old and trusted as a modern security vendor.  Their SSL license of course is much more expensive than your own.  Your goal of course is to steal away their market share and increase your own.  This is a difficult task, but I think you are on the right track - by developing a security suite (antivirus, firewall, and antispyware) you are hoping it will be extremely popular among general internet users.  I think you would be expecting something similar to Avast's popularity - atleast something that would grab the attention of security administrators and ITs in corporations.  Now, they see your own license which is significantly less expensive than Verisign's and the fact that your security products are trusted worldwide; hence the creation of the trusted brand name "Comodo".  This will of course spread Comodo's market share through the licensing of increased SSL. 

On a side note, I do love both the antivirus and the firewall.  They are extremely well designed and compatible products.  And, I look forward to working with new users via this forum.

-Staind

Staind

General market awareness at every level is good. But one important point is average users don't know who Verisign is, so when they see the verisign logo they are indifferent to it. But if a company Like Comodo who they trusted for security their PC also secured the website they are shopping at, will feel more confident. hence we will be the choice of e-merchants!

Melih

[Staind]

Exactly!  It's a very good strategy and I think it will work out.  It's very aggressive and innovative.  Not only are your security products excellent, but also your business planning is as well

[Melih]

Exactly!  It's a very good strategy and I think it will work out.  It's very aggressive and innovative.  Not only are your security products excellent, but also your business planning is as well

Thanks! we would like to innovate at every level :-)


Melih

[V4V]

Hi,

I have only come to know of the existence of Comodo  last week and I am testing it out on my windows pc's.  I like the GUI and so far it is running great also without confilicts with other downloaders, security software (Avast AV and Sunbelt Counterspy) and browsers.
I have tried Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm, Kerio and Outpost in the past.
Sunbelt-Kerio is also great (not completely free) but it somehow caused a lot of BSoD's (yikes!!)  on my XPsp2.  Outpost completely crippled my internet connection so I had to uninstall it.

I think it's really great that you are offering this level of a product for absolutely free.   Your strategy in offering free security to the enduser and building up trust in the internet community will in the end lead you to a greater success, like you have already mentioned. 
It is also good that you guyz have a forum like this, because, the active interaction with a larger pool of users will create accordingly a larger and wider knowledge base for the benefit of the whole. 

However like someone has mentioned already, it still would be nice to have an option to donate without any ties.  I think a lot of people would like to show a sign of appreciation for a good product, especially in these days where everything has a price.  (Even if it is only a couple of dollars...).   This way you could use your comodo SSL on it as a demo, too.  So far I've seen a lot of Verisign logos on SSL sites, but I don't have come across any Comodo SSL logos. (Maybe I have never noticed it... sorry!)

Thank you for your good work.

[Melih]

Hi,

I have only come to know of the existence of Comodo  last week and I am testing it out on my windows pc's.  I like the GUI and so far it is running great also without confilicts with other downloaders, security software (Avast AV and Sunbelt Counterspy) and browsers.
I have tried Norton, McAfee, ZoneAlarm, Kerio and Outpost in the past.
Sunbelt-Kerio is also great (not completely free) but it somehow caused a lot of BSoD's (yikes!!)  on my XPsp2.  Outpost completely crippled my internet connection so I had to uninstall it.

I think it's really great that you are offering this level of a product for absolutely free.   Your strategy in offering free security to the enduser and building up trust in the internet community will in the end lead you to a greater success, like you have already mentioned. 
It is also good that you guyz have a forum like this, because, the active interaction with a larger pool of users will create accordingly a larger and wider knowledge base for the benefit of the whole. 

However like someone has mentioned already, it still would be nice to have an option to donate without any ties.  I think a lot of people would like to show a sign of appreciation for a good product, especially in these days where everything has a price.  (Even if it is only a couple of dollars...).   This way you could use your comodo SSL on it as a demo, too.  So far I've seen a lot of Verisign logos on SSL sites, but I don't have come across any Comodo SSL logos. (Maybe I have never noticed it... sorry!)

Thank you for your good work.

Thanks V4V

It certainly is in our wish list to create the ability to contribute to charities. As to how long it will take, i don't have an answer yet.

Well, yes Verisign might have slightly more SSL out there then we do, but that's only temporary ;-)

Melih

[nixda]

We are already an operationally profitable company. We have been in existence since 1998. We are the 2nd largest Certification Authority in the world (after Verisign)

 (WCF11)

O.K., one person less which did not know that before. Before some notes about some good freeware offered here at Comodo, I never heard about your company (sorry) ... or I do not remember it. And I am using 15+ years the Net. So, maybe your way is not so wrong.

Nixda

[r2baruch]

No most definitely we are not!

We already have hundreds of thousands of (if not low millions) users using our free products. We have a good customer care dept and have created enough infrastructure for the customer care to be minimal. So we will scale well plus we have lots of good people in the forums who are kind enough to help with Comodo users which help reduce customer support costs.

Melih

I can vouch for the helpfulness of the forums and the promptness of the support staff when I dropped them a line.
Keep up the good work and what seems to be well on the way to becoming a great product.

[BullHorn]

The way Comodo's free software progresses, Comodo will soon control the internet security market.

 (L)

[Melih]

The way Comodo's free software progresses, Comodo will soon control the internet security market.

 (L)

Well, people have dreams! My dream is to secure the internet, and the best way of doing it is by shaping its future!

Melih

[AMADHA]

Thanks V4V

It certainly is in our wish list to create the ability to contribute to charities. As to how long it will take, i don't have an answer yet.

Well, yes Verisign might have slightly more SSL out there then we do, but that's only temporary ;-)

Melih

As the president of a small charity that provides services to Autistic Children having a method to securely obtain donations online that didn't cost an arm an a leg would be nice but that's within the infrastructure of our ISP.  We can lobby, but it's their choice and we live with it.  Regardless, thanks for thinking of us.

However, I believe that the original respondent was requesting that you establish a mechanism that we, your grateful and ecstatic users, could send some cash your way.  So we can say "thank-you" with various cash amounts from very small to big to support the free products you provide.  This would monetize the service in some small way.  (Also, when your AV hits production and buries (or ties) the current standards in a test like the one recently run by Consumers Report, perhaps corporate America will sit up and take notice.  If you are commited to free desktops, regardless of location, perhaps a "recommended" corporate donation of 10% of the previous license costs to further development and support would be reasonable?  For my company that's a big savings and still a chunk of change for the recipient.)

I know I'd throw a few personal dollars at you if this service was available. (It would also provide an active demo of your core service.)

[Melih]

As the president of a small charity that provides services to Autistic Children having a method to securely obtain donations online that didn't cost an arm an a leg would be nice but that's within the infrastructure of our ISP.  We can lobby, but it's their choice and we live with it.  Regardless, thanks for thinking of us.

However, I believe that the original respondent was requesting that you establish a mechanism that we, your grateful and ecstatic users, could send some cash your way.  So we can say "thank-you" with various cash amounts from very small to big to support the free products you provide.  This would monetize the service in some small way.  (Also, when your AV hits production and buries (or ties) the current standards in a test like the one recently run by Consumers Report, perhaps corporate America will sit up and take notice.  If you are commited to free desktops, regardless of location, perhaps a "recommended" corporate donation of 10% of the previous license costs to further development and support would be reasonable?  For my company that's a big savings and still a chunk of change for the recipient.)

I know I'd throw a few personal dollars at you if this service was available. (It would also provide an active demo of your core service.)

Thanks for the response. Well, we don't want donations to go to Comodo. I understand that our user's wish to express their appreciations thru donations to Comodo, however, we have other revenue streams that we rely on and we very much want to channel "user appreciation" donations to Charities.

The world would be a much worse place without the good work that charities do. At Comodo we try to follow a responsible business model in order to better life for the human race and the world! Helping the organisations that tries to better lives of millions of human beings out there is one of the ways that Comodo can help.

Melih

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