Summary
The embedded spreadsheet below presents some information on various "pirate" file sharing sites. These particular sites were discovered as all of them illegally share copyrights owned by this site's creator. The list is by no means a comprehensive list of all sites trafficking in unlicensed copyrights. Furthermore, not all of the data on the sites has been filled in.
What is interesting though is the estimated statistics from this very incomplete listing of "pirate" sites.
- Average daily hits: ~100 million
- Average daily revenue: ~ $300,000
- Annual revenue: ~ $110 million
- Sites aggregate valuation: $218 million
While some of these sites host "legal" content, they are all hosting or linking to intellectual property for which they have no licenses. They are in effect playing a "shell game" saying they will take down files if requested, etc. Occasionally, in some jurisdictions, some of these sites have been sued1, but they continue to operate unabated.
It should be noted too that the revenue estimates are based upon advertising revenue only. Some of these sites actually require paid membership (or offer it as an upgrade option) in order to download or before they will serve up a download link.
We have no way of knowing how many actual downloads are taking place in the aggregate at these particular sites so, we can not estimate how much revenue is being lost to the intellectual property owners. But, 100 million hits per day would seem to imply a staggering number. There really is no reason to be on these sites except to either upload to them or download from them as they do not have any other content worth spending time reading or perusing.
If you are an intellectual property owner, these numbers should make your blood boil. These people have created an almost quarter billion dollar business by stealing and trafficking in your assets.
