avast! Notches up 50 Millionth User

March 11, 2008: avast! antivirus, a freeware virus protection solution has announced that it now has 50 million registered, concurrent users. A hefty milestone indeed.

Developed and distributed by ALWIL software, avast! is free for home users, but that said, being free takes none of the shine of its 50 million user base – a significant number by any measure.

The solution’s popularity is certainly accelerating as well. First released in January 2002, as of October 2007 avast! had racked up 40 million registered users, with a further 10 million signing up between October 2007 and February 2008.

“This is a major achievement for all of the hardworking team at ALWIL Software, showing that dedication to offering a best-in-class antivirus can pay off both for us as a team, and for our user base,” said Eduard Kucera, ALWIL Software joint founder and CEO. “With fifty million concurrent users of avast!, we can demonstrate that we are doing our job well, and our users agree.”

Kucera added that despite its popularity the firm is definitely not going to become complacent when it comes to malware protection.

“[I]n the soon to be released version 4.8 of avast! Antivirus, we have added anti-spyware capability, certified by West Coast Labs Checkmark certification process and anti-rootkit protection, as well as very strong self-protection of the product itself,” he said.

Avast! is available for free download (for home users) for PC, Linux and Mac.

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