July 17, 2005 9:00 PM PDT
WinZip purchased by turnaround specialist
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WinZip, which specializes in software that compresses large files for storage or mailing, has been bought by turnaround investor Vector Capital.
For years, WinZip's eponymous utility has been one of the most popular shareware programs on the Web. More than 140 million people have downloaded the program, and it's downloaded for free about 500,000 times a week, said Chris Nicholson, a partner at Vector.
Technically, WinZip charges $29 for the program after a 30-day free trial. Unfortunately, the honor system doesn't work as well as it used to. Few customers end up paying for the program.
The company also has never charged for upgrades or new versions, a common practice in the software world. And it has not added extra features for customers that paid the $29 licensing fee.
"There was little emphasis on monetizing what they had," Nicholson said.
Vector will try to change that by reminding users a little more firmly that the software costs money, as well as likely coming out with features that only paying customers can download. Vector also signed a marketing and distribution agreement with Google.
But Nicholson added, "We don't want to be heavy-handed about it."
If anything, Vector has shown that software companies that have been around the block can mount a comeback. The group bought Corel, which lost millions trying to latch on to the next big thing, in 2003. Vector took Corel private, streamlined its product lines and even got a new CEO.
"Corel is making money now. It is very, very profitable," he said. Corel, in fact, last year acquired Jasc Software, which makes Paint Shop. Jasc was also owned by Vector.
"We're not looking to have our investment dollars spent on R&D or building a market," Nicholson said. "We are buying companies that have a customer base."
Terms of the deal, which was concluded earlier but is only being revealed now, were not disclosed.
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I can't believe they think demanding money from freeloaders is going to work.
They may know how to turn around a company that had PAYING CUSTOMERS, but they've got no chance with a company thats customers are freeloaders. Espcially with a utility that is widely available for free with your operating system.
Although WinXP has a built-in zip compression tool, it is not as fast as WinZip. I guess the biggest WinZip mistake is that they did not make the product secure enough to really stop working after the trial period.
Though risky, the brand is real. Depending on how Vector "markets" WinZip, I bet they'll still make money out of it.
Small and does the trick!
7-Zip is OK as well (and free, can't beat that!) but not as customizable as I'd like (eg: you can't make it default to a compression format).
Also, I am not sure if it was a typo but not charging for upgrades is definately not a common practice in the software world. Usually this is only done by amateurs that do not make any money.
And Phil charged nothing for it. It was free.
WinZip owes Phil a debt of gratitude for using the 'Zip' name...if not his code.
Charge for WinZip, ha! As long as pirateware sites have it for free or WinRar exists they'll get only a few dumb dollars.
WinZip is being downloaded "500,000 times a week"? First, I doubt that very much. That would be 26 million downloads per year. Why? Windows XP has zip/unzip function built-in, as does Apple Mac OS X and even Red Hat Linux. Or do most people not know that? In XP, you right click and there it is...
Who's downloading 26 million copies a year? There can't be that many copies of Windows 98 being installed each week...
So, the obvious point the reporter failed to mention is that zipping/unzipping is now a generic free function bundled with the top most popular operating sytems.
Therefore, I think the "500,000 per week" figure is wishful thinking or PR puffery on the part of the new owners.
I only need a zip program for older Windows operating systems that I happen to encounter in my hobby of working on computers, and even then I refuse to use any recent versions of WinZip. It used to be a good program -- it and PKZip were the leader back in the late 90s. But, there are many free excellant programs that do a better, simpler job for what I need.
(If for some reason you do need a zip utility, CNET's Download.com has 18 totally free offerings that work with ALL versions of Widows. Narrow the search to "free" license instead of "all" or "try for free.")
The only reason I can figure people download and use WinZip is 1) they don't know any better -- since Window XP has zip functions built in or 2) they have an older operating system like Windows 98 -- but even then they are using WinZip because they don't know any better...
Also, besides the price factor, recent versions of Win Zip are very annoying and intrusive. When you install, the first thing it tries to do is search your hard drive for all your zip folders and categorize them -- as if zip folders are the most important thing in your life and you want to know where they are at all times! (if you want to find zip files, there's the Windows search function...) And then it asks whether you want "classic" or "wizard" interface. NEITHER. I only want to use a zip utility when I encounter a zip folder -- like in a e-mail or something I have downloaded. And then I want it integrated with simple built-in functionality with my mouse right click menu to "unzip" and let me tell it where (usually onto the desktop or My Documents folder). I don't want to have to fire up some program just to zip or unzip a file. I don't need some program that tries to make my life more complicated or has pretensions of grandeur. Same if I want to zip something. Right click and "convert to zip." Yes, I know WinZip will ALSO do that (right-click functionality), but you have to get through setup to use that and they make the installation process so unnecessarily complicated for aspects of the program that I don't want and will never use. Also, did I mention it costs money and others are free?
Now they are being sold to new owners that will try to prey upon people who don't know better....
I also use Jasc Paint Shop Pro but not sure when Vector bought it because i use what is an older version (no need to upgrade) and i dont care much for Adobe products so Jasc PSP was the better choice for me.
- Two Words: ZipGenius (actually, one word)
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by lorax1284
February 16, 2006 6:05 PM PST
- I am an owner of WinZip from way back. I use V 9 now.
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Reply to this comment
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See all 24 Comments >>The functionality hasn't really changed much, until V10's new "explorer mode".
I've discovered a FREE program (not shareware, but FREEWARE, as far as I can tell) called ZipGenius that gives me the Shell Integration of WinZip at $0.
When I got a second computer, I was going to purchase another WinZip license, but when I saw that upgrades were no longer going to be free, I thought I'd look for free alternatives... I found ZipGenius, and now, I fear that license fee they got from me almost 10 years ago will be the last.