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AVG
Freemium, Conversion Rates and More: AVG CEO J.R. Smith (Part 7)
Sramana: Where do you see AVG going from here? J.R. Smith: Moving forward, we have to figure out how to increase monetization of our users without charging them a dime. Our mantra is to ensure everyone is protected, paid user or free users. The more we move toward indirect monetization, the more we will be
Freemium, Conversion Rates and More: AVG CEO J.R. Smith (Part 6)
Sramana: What does the competitive landscape look like for you? J.R. Smith: Competition is pretty vast for us. By giving away our products and figuring out how to cross-sell and upsell, we have grown our customer base to 106 million active users. When you get 100 million users, that changes the business model. We are
Freemium, Conversion Rates and More: AVG CEO J.R. Smith (Part 5)
Sramana: How was traffic being driven to the AVG website? J.R. Smith: It was mostly coming from the web as organic traffic. There were so many affiliates and partners giving away the software on their websites that Google had listed AVG as one of the top search results for the term “free antivirus.” It was
Freemium, Conversion Rates and More: AVG CEO J.R. Smith (Part 4)
Sramana: What did you do after you Dot Mobile? J.R. Smith: As I was leaving Dot, I had heard that a firm I knew had purchased a small antivirus company called AVG out of the Czech Republic. It was a company that was doing tens of millions of dollars in revenue and had a nice
Freemium, Conversion Rates and More: AVG CEO J.R. Smith (Part 3)
Sramana: What did you do after you left Telecom Solutions Group? J.R. Smith: I left to found a MVNO, which is a mobile virtual network operator. Virgin Mobile is perhaps the most famous MVNO. MVNOs lease capacity with network operators, and they are in charge of sales, marketing and distribution. They have their own brand
Freemium, Conversion Rates and More: AVG CEO J.R. Smith (Part 2)
Sramana: How long did your journey in cellular continue? J.R. Smith: My U.S. experience in cellular lasted until 1997. Shortly before VoiceStream was acquired by T-Mobile, I left to go on a temporary assignment with Motorola in Prague. They were deploying a network for Radio Mobile and I knew a lot about network deployment, cite
Freemium, Conversion Rates and More: AVG CEO J.R. Smith (Part 1)
If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. J.R. Smith is the CEO of AVG, which offers antivirus solutions through a freemium model. Prior to joining AVG, Smith served as chief executive officer of United Kingdom-based Dot Mobile Limited, a mobile virtual network operator he cofounded in 2005 and that partnered with Vodafone Group
