Firefox 200 Million Downloads - what it means

Posted by asa on Mon, 07/31/2006 - 20:18Spreading Firefox

Let me start off by saying that YOU ALL ARE AMAZING!

Today the Firefox download counter crossed the 200 million mark.

We know that this number doesn't represent actual users because this number includes both Firefox 1.0 and Firefox 1.5 (soon Firefox 2,) because not every one completes every download, and because not every download results in a new Firefox user.

That being said, 200 million people seeking Firefox is a huge accomplishment and we're right to celebrate our role in driving that number.

The Spread Firefox affiliates program, represented over in the Weekly Roll Call box on the right, has been responsible for both early momentum and ongoing downloads. Tens of thousands of you are active affiliates using buttons, banners, and links to spread the word about Firefox. As our community grows, so will this affiliate program. I'd like to see us bulletproof it against spoofing and then start doing more to incent and reward everyone using this tool to grow the Firefox user base.

Going forward, I'd also like to find a better way for our community to measure its success. At Mozilla, we've developed a much better system for measuring users than what we had when the counter launched back in the Firefox 1.0 days. One of the things I'd like to see us do here at SFX is to transition away from counting download clicks and build tools that let us celebrate our very real and swiftly growing user base.

But today we celebrate. Congratulations to every single person who made Firefox the success it is today.

we did it 


asa's blog | login or register to post comments | 100999 reads
Newspaper link.
Submitted by ottodv on Wed, 08/02/2006 - 02:17.

A Dutch online newspaper has picked up the 200 million download fact:
http://www.nu.nl/news/792903/50/rss/Firefox_200_miljoen_keer_gedownload.html 

It also quotes onestat saying that Fx market share is still increasing. 

Otto - Fire up the Fox

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;o)
Submitted by Up North on Wed, 08/02/2006 - 07:43.

saw that 2 ;o)

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Simply amazing
Submitted by vogelpesto on Tue, 08/01/2006 - 22:27.

This is simply amazing. When I started to use Firebird as an alternative to Internet Explorer I would have never guessed that that tiny little browser would grow up to be the best browser ever. Thanks for all the work you put in this, both developers, testers and fans. You guys are awesome.
 
- Save a tree, eat more woodpeckers.

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Firebird...
Submitted by ALIENDUDE5300 on Tue, 08/01/2006 - 22:42.

I used it since 0.8 when it wasn't popular.

Visit My New Website based on Spreading Firefox

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200 Million Downloads - Not 200 Million Users
Submitted by talk2driz on Tue, 08/01/2006 - 17:30.

QUOTE: {"That being said, 200 million people seeking Firefox is a huge
accomplishment and we're right to celebrate our role in driving that
number."}

 Its not 200 million people seeking, its more like a 600,000 who've downloaded, 1.0, 1.5. and 1.5+

I think we should start a new campaign where every user signs up as a user, by entering their email, name, etc. That way we'd have an ACCURATE list of users, we could even then use this as an mailing list to send updates about firefox???

if you like this idea, please email me at talk2driz@driz.co.uk so we can discuss it>
 

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200 Million Downloads - 100 Million Users
Submitted by schapel on Fri, 08/04/2006 - 17:10.

If there are only 600,000 users, then how can Firefox have over 10% usage share when there are about 1 billion people connected to the Internet? Wouldn't that give Firefox around 0.06% usage share? The number of users you give sounds several orders of magnitude off.

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What about all the users who didn't download Firefox?
Submitted by seaeagle on Fri, 08/04/2006 - 04:16.

There are also a lot of users who didn't download Firefox from the Mozilla download site.  It comes with most Linux distros, and a business may do one download & finish up installing it on 50 or more PC's.  I know someone who fixes PC's (especially spyware problems), and he has a CD which he uses to install Firefox on almost every PC he deals with (and tells customers to use it instead of IE).  So all of these users are not counted in the "official" download figures.

Still, maybe a Firefox equivalent to Linux Counter might be worth setting up.  I'd sign up. 

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Your title even contriadicts your base-less point.
Submitted by natmaster on Tue, 08/01/2006 - 17:54.

As I'm sure you're so very accurate with your 600,000 number. Got a masters in statistics, I see? I'm sure people love wasting time giving their email out. It sure makes me fill with glee! 

Aeon of Darkness - Free Online Roleplaying MUD

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"At Mozilla, we've developed
Submitted by Up North on Tue, 08/01/2006 - 06:47.

"At Mozilla, we've developed a much better system for measuring users
than what we had when the counter launched back in the Firefox 1.0
days. One of the things I'd like to see us do here at SFX is to
transition away from counting download clicks and build tools that let
us celebrate our very real and swiftly growing user base."

Well that is exciting to hear. How are we going to show the results of this new technique on sfx? For retro purposes maybe download figures are just fun (unless you want people to correlate one to the other?)

Are there ideas here in the community on how to display user base figures non invasive on sfx (just probing ,o)

marco 

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Wow...
Submitted by Ken Saunders on Mon, 07/31/2006 - 21:21.

Wow, I’m glad to be a part of it all and I hope to be around for a few more hundred million.
Thanks for letting us all feel a part of Spread Firefox.





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