100 Million Users !!!!!!!!
We did it. We reached the 100 million user milestone at 10:59 Tuesday morning. We have been anticipating this event all year. We started the year with about 70 million users. We had a little celebration and promotion for 75 million users. Then we watched 80 million and 90 million go by. By October it was clear that we would cross 100 million in December. So, on the morning of 8 December all of our staff crowded around a large monitor to watch the registration counter tick upwards to 100 million. We had a little self-induced tension in the event—just 30 seconds before the 100 million mark, someone hit a button on a remote control that switched the display away from the count—some seconds of mad scramble restored the picture.
Check the sequence below and you can watch us reach and pass the 100,000,000 user mark:
If you can’t see a sequence, here is a single picture of the 100,000,000 user count (in the picture are Ondrej Vlcek, our CTO; myself; Jindrich Kubec, who runs our virus research lab; and our two founders, Pavel Baudis and Eduard Kucera:
Then it was time to open the Czech Sparkling Wine (since we are in the EU, we cannot call it Champagne as we do in America) and celebrate. At the bottom you can find some pictures of our staff celebrating and toasting the event.
Now, we had started a contest in late November to reward the 100,000,000th user with a trip to Prague. We had hoped to run this contest for longer than we did—but our new users came faster than we had expected. The winner is Kevin Bolger of Ireland. Here are the registrants just before and after Kevin:
|
Number |
Name |
Location |
Time |
| 99 999 995 | whitney | United States | 10:58:46 |
| 99 999 996 | hsemih | Kenya | 10:58:54 |
| 99 999 997 | Fiona | United States | 10:59:00 |
| 99 999 998 | qianfang | China | 10:59:01 |
| 99 999 999 | carmen | Italy | 10:59:04 |
| 100 000 000 | Kevin | Ireland | 10:59:04 |
| 100 000 001 | durdux | France | 10:59:06 |
| 100 000 002 | hutchinson | United States | 10:59:08 |
| 100 000 003 | woyen | France | 10:59:11 |
| 100 000 004 | pelle | France | 10:59:18 |
| 100 000 005 | mini | Taiwan | 10:59:18 |
As much as we love our French users (we are the most popular security product in France), it was fitting that Ireland beat France for this prize. It was only a week or two ago that a hand ball from the French side kept the Irish out of the Football (soccer) World Cup. I am sure most Irish would not consider this a suitable consolation prize, but I am sure that Kevin and a friend will very much enjoy their expense-paid trip to Prague.
We had wanted to announce the results Tuesday or Wednesday but we had a little difficulty contacting Kevin. First our emails from avast and from gmail were blocked as Spam (I guess many ISP spam filters kill emails that have phrases about winning a contest). We finally reached him with a real short email asking him to call us. He did so but still doubted he had won (showing excellent skills at combating social-engineering scams). So, he then sent an email to our technical support to confirm that it was not a hoax. Thankfully tech support told him it was legitimate. Kevin, thanks for going to all this effort and we are glad to have you as our 100,000,000th user.
The times on the above list are Central European Time so it was rather surprising to see the three US names—depending on their US time zone, they registered between 2AM and 5AM!!!
Also, if you recognize yourself on the above list, send me a note from the email address you used for your registration. We will then send you a copy of our new Internet Security Product when it becomes available—and if you are ever in Prague, we will take you out for a nice evening and show you the sights. And Carmen, since you got beat out by a fraction of a second, if you ever find yourself in Prague let us know and our Italian staff here will take extra care of you.
On the serious side, we thank all 100,000,000 of our users for showing such trust in us. It is a great feeling to be trusted by 100,000,000 users.Passing 100 million registered users.
For the official press release about the 100 millionth avast! user, click here.
Congrats for Kevin, and the Avast team from Hungary
My hearty congratulations to the team behind the Avast.
I’m waiting for the official launch of Avast 5.
Deepu G, India
Hello, Congratulations.
But, I think I am waiting long enough for OFFICIAL AVAST 5.
Congratulations for this great milestone,and i continue to trust Avast! and Avast! only for my system protection , Thank you Avast team for all your hard work..
Ahmed , Egypt
I congratulate you on your achievement, and I am happy to inform you that as soon as Avast! 5 comes out, I will be switching back(I decided to try out Avira. Wonderful program too, but its interface is outdated). Happy Holidays to the Avast Team!
C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S!
We knew whom to trust……!
Hi, Congratulations.
Thank you Avast! team for all your hard work. My system protected by Avast! ONLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY FOR EVER.
Congratulations!
I just skipped McAfee though my license were still valid – it was too much trouble – and slowed my computer.
But Avast works perfect!!
No wonder you have so many users!!
Dear Avast CEO,
I am sure you must be kicking yourself by now for putting your foot in your mouth by dismissing the recent Dennis Labs test where Norton won, because guess what, that result has been corroborated by two independent test houses AV-Test.org and AV-Comparatives. Guess you dont trust them too, do ya.
Norton wins two more Dynamic tests
http://av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/dyn/dynamic2009.pdf
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2009/12/av-testorg_releases_real-world.php
Congratulations!
Your work is excellent. Iam very happy for your achievements.
Prague is a wonderfull city and I have many friends in Prague, Brno and Kunovice
Another excellent czech product!
happy hollidays! naz draví!!
Thank you Avast! team for this great security program, we trust you to protect us. Keep it up!!.
Shady ~ Egypt
Congratulations. I can’t wait version 5 Final. Our security blog will always promote your great achievements.
Something is fishy. The animation shows about 17 downloads in about 2 or 3 seconds… but the times show that only 5 downloads where made in the previous 19 seconds….
Eick,
the table that Vince posted only listed people who opted-in. That is, there was a checkbox on the registration page via which users could opt in to the contest (and by far not everyone did).
Congratulations from Malaysia..
Avast! = Rocks!
Keep up the good work!
Congratiolations and all the best to you !!!
Looking forward to the incredible ( ? ) Number 5 !
Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland
Alex C.
parabéns para este melhor anti-virus do mundo já trabalho com ele a 8 anos e resolve o problema é melhor que os pagos recomendo para todos PARABÉNS AVAST VOCÊS SÃO 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
i was using your account for a year now and i havent got any viruses! congratulations Avast! ur the number 1!! AVAST FTW!
Hello avast! team. Sorry for off topic. You have seen this trick??? avast! Home Edition for 5 $ !!! (I saw about this trick on a blog)
hxtp://www.helpingindia.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=50_63&products_id=592
Madalin, Romania
avast protect power full all of the world pc.
i dont say what i feel
thanks a lot
Congratulations!
Avast! = Rocks!
keep going
from Qatar
Well done to Avast, Im geting a virus warning when I go on Yahoo to check my mail, I get this http://uk.mc232.mail.yahoo.com/mc/welcome?.gx=1&.tm=1261913691&.rand=2md5tolmlsh3c\{gzip} anyone else having this problem?
How can I delete my above post?
After the most recent update avast keeps on treating the ads in yahoo as a virus/malware!!! e.g.: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-t25-florida-meyerresigns&prov=ap&type=lgns\{gzip} is being treated as a malware!!! I can’t go to a webpage without the malware warning popping up!!! What the f is happening?!??
Its not just me then Adrian, it needs sorting ASP.
I come from the People’s Republic of user, very grateful to provide users with a free AVAST anti-virus software; I hope you will be able to continue this work pure and simple!!!
WTF DOES THAT MEAN??????
I also got the warnings on Yahoo – but there was another virus database update tonight and they seem to have fixed it.
All’s well that ends well.
Cheers, and season’s greetings.
– Chuck
kamine kutte avast profesional free kar jaldi thek warna teri ……..samjh ja!!!!!
ESTOU ENTRANDO AGORA NO SISTEMA DE ANTI-VIRUS E ME PARECE ÓTIMO O AVAST.
O anti vitus é muito bom….
gostei.
For years I have used Avast and i must say I LOVE YOUR COMPANY!!!!! I have the 4 home edition.. with out the free version on all my computers id be lost in the matrix so to speak.. Kudos to your diligent efforts and hard working team for providing a great product and awesome support 24/7….. Please keep up the good work.. I will keep recommending Avast to everyone i know
avast=Cuck Norris
avast=Doctor House
avast=The Soprano Family
avast=KING OFF THE ANTIVIRUS
YEAH AVAST
FROM
OVIDIO MILAN ITALY
congratulations avast for 100 million users! I look forward avast 5! congratulations
Are there any stats available on how many of those 100 million users run Windows 98 or XP or are using Linux, or whichever?
I think that would be of great interest to some people as I would really like to have an idea of how many people are still running OS’s like 98.
It’s just for curiosity’s sake that I ask.
Guimaster
@Guimaster
Hello Guimaster. I don’t have the statistics for the 100 million users but if I look at visitors to our website during the month of December, we see that 99.5% are WIndows and .23% are Linux. Users of old operating Systems (2000, 98, 2003, NT, ME, CE, and 95) account for about 1.1% of all visitors. IE is 64%, FF is 26%, Chrome is 5%, and Opera is 3.5%. For the newer operating systems, 66% is XP, 25% Vista, and 8% Windows 7.
From INDONESIA…..I Love AVAST……!!!
thanks AVAST for your features and improvement.
I am proud of your PERFORMANCE and ACHIEVEMENT..beat the others :p
Finally, bayu from Indonesia spotted
I love Avast. I hope Avst 5 comes soon. Avast is the best. You can even beat Norton.
Hi,
1st is Congatulation on the 100 millions over users… I am a newbie for Avast.
Found the anti-virus really helped me in many of the virus attack and block most of the spyware or malware.. Hope to work more closely with Avast… thanks
Can anyone tell me in which month avast 5 is going to be launched.
Congratulation for 100millions user.. Avast is a very good antivirus, it helped me a lot of times. Even though I have not won the trip in Prague (I registered November 23rd) I will visit that city, everyone tells me it’s very beautiful…
Greetings from Italy to everybody!
Congratulations for all the team!!.. Greetings from Argentina to everybody!!!!
Hi Aeffe,
I agree with you aeffe, Chezch Rep. Prague City have a beautiful concert hall to visited.