Naver PC Green: Should all software be offered as a free service?
Web 2.0 | 2008/02/11 12:39 | Web 2.0 Asia
This was actually announced a few weeks ago, but the whole issue occurred to me again recently, with the planned Yahoo-Microsoft merger.
Naver, Korea's 800lb gorilla portal, announced in mid-January that they have signed an MOU with Ahn Lab, Korea's leading anti-virus software company, to integrate Ahn Lab's security technologies into Naver's free anti-virus service called PC Green.
Naver PC Green is already being offered as a free service, but it doesn't have Ahn Lab's technologies in it.
Being able to use robust anti-virus software for free is clearly a good thing to users. I'm happily using Naver's PC Green now at my home PC (my work PC is Macbook Pro, not yet supported by PC Green). But the question still remains: How will Ahn Lab, the provider of the technology, be able to make money when nobody pays for the software anymore? Will ads rev share from Naver alone provide sufficient funds to keep the engine rolling at Ahn Lab so the company can continuously innovate?
Now, what does this have to do with the Y-M merger? Obviously one angle to view the whole issue of Microhoo is the rise of free consumer software (as a service) which could have made Microsoft look for fresh source of revenues other than software sales (such as ads).
Office productivity software has already been made free by Google et al. Now, the anti-virus software seems it's no exception from this "software as a free service" trend. It's happening here in Korea now.
Naver, Korea's 800lb gorilla portal, announced in mid-January that they have signed an MOU with Ahn Lab, Korea's leading anti-virus software company, to integrate Ahn Lab's security technologies into Naver's free anti-virus service called PC Green.
Naver PC Green is already being offered as a free service, but it doesn't have Ahn Lab's technologies in it.
Being able to use robust anti-virus software for free is clearly a good thing to users. I'm happily using Naver's PC Green now at my home PC (my work PC is Macbook Pro, not yet supported by PC Green). But the question still remains: How will Ahn Lab, the provider of the technology, be able to make money when nobody pays for the software anymore? Will ads rev share from Naver alone provide sufficient funds to keep the engine rolling at Ahn Lab so the company can continuously innovate?
Now, what does this have to do with the Y-M merger? Obviously one angle to view the whole issue of Microhoo is the rise of free consumer software (as a service) which could have made Microsoft look for fresh source of revenues other than software sales (such as ads).
Office productivity software has already been made free by Google et al. Now, the anti-virus software seems it's no exception from this "software as a free service" trend. It's happening here in Korea now.
TAG ahnlab, antivirus, Naver, PC Green
