iBario
 | |
| Slogan | Connect. Engage. Convert. |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Emil [Paz] Puzailov, Yefi Gureni, Felix Leshno, Pavel Sandler and Mike Peters |
| Initial release | 2010 |
| Development status | Active |
| Written in | XML |
| Type | Software Distribution, Online Retail, Software |
| Website |
www |
iBario is an internet marketing conglomerate based in Israel.
It is estimated by industry experts that iBario would be worth $100 million in 2014. iBario has requested to be removed from Google search results in 2012 and 2013, due to copyright infringement.
History
Founded in 2010 by five founders[1] — Emil Pozaylov, Yefi Gureni, Felix Leshno, Pavel Sandler and Mike Peters, iBario, is a privately owned and funded company. The company focuses on product diversification in its business model and has branched out in various different industries, from cooking to software and even gaming. Over the years, iBario has grown to be one of the world’s biggest internet marketing platform.
With 60 employees, iBario operates from a modest industrial building in Or Yehuda and is estimated by industry experts to be worth around $100 million.[2] According to estimates, in 2014, iBario has an annual turnover of $90 million and a net revenue of more than $10 million.
iBario, one of the biggest Google Adwords buyer in Israel and Europe, is also a well-known partner of Google. Israel Growth Partners[3] are also interested to acquire 25% stake of iBario valued up to $150 million in May 2014.
Founders
| Name | Designation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Felix Leshno | Marketing Director | In charge of all of their marketing and together with Peters, they were instrumental in getting iBario to focus more on developing its own products, such as video games, instead of helping other companies promote themselves |
| Mike Peters[4] | General Manager | Handled Business development and Automation. Left the company in 2014. |
| Emil [Pav] Pozaylov | Chief Executive Officer | Pozaylov oversees iBario’s development and monetization deals. |
| Yefi Gureni | Chief Executive Officer | Gureni previously worked as a development manager at SAP Labs and led software development at Harmonycom. He currently overseas all of iBario's operations and traffic deals. The two first met as students at the famed Technion in Haifa |
| Pavel Sandler[5] | Chief Technology Officer | Sandler is currently focusing on managing the technological aspects of RevenueHits. According to RevenueHits, the company has dubbed him "The Athletic One"[6] |
Business model
The net worth of the company is estimated to be $100 million.[7] As a privately owned and funded company, iBario receives majority of its funding from advertisements. The company runs their own advertising network, RevenueHits, which serves advertisements to the users on the iBario sites. Aside from RevenueHits, iBario is also one of the largest Google Adwords buyer in Europe and Israel, helping them to penetrate both local and international advertising network. Due to the company’s heavy usage of Google Adwords, they have established close ties with Google, with both companies working closely towards developing website content for the best user experience.
Revenue generation
iBario aims to generate revenue from distribution of its own software and developing PC maintenance products. In just a short period, they have acquired brands like PerformerSoft, BeGamer and Slovak Studio to help develop and code their content sites.
iBario's biggest revenue generator is the free software installation engine InstallBrain. Studies estimate that iBario produces 50% of its revenue, but it has decline to no more than 20% due to the limited ability of toolbars to override the search engine settings of users.[8]
RevenueHits, iBario's sister company, is estimated to account 30-40% of their overall revenue. It works with other advertising networks in Israeli namely Matomy Media Group and Marimedia. Revenue is earned only if user has performed a transaction from the advertisement. It also allows users to run controlled test on the various marketing communication channels.[8]
Popularity
iBario has successfully launched their brands with many gaining much attention from around the world. Their websites, according to Leshno who is one of the five founders, have shown remarkable results and are at the top of their individual categories. Softtango, iBario’s download site which brings in approximately 25 million[7] downloads per month, is the fourth largest download site in the world. Other notable websites include:
- Mayajo, iBario’s recipe site has brought in more web traffic as compared to well-known websites such as Receipe.com and BigOven
- Speedanalysis.com, a site which helps check users’ online speed connection is raking in 100 million unique visitors each month
Brands
It carries number of brands:
| Special Savings |
|---|
| A platform which provides consumers with savings on products and services. Upon landing onto the web page, consumers be tasked to key in keywords of the products or services which they are looking for.
Search results would then redirect them to deals based on the category they have keyed. Consumers would then be able to ‘Get Coupon’ or ‘Share’ it on social media sites. Consumers would also be able to see which store is making the discount available which they would also be able to view more deals from the main dealer’s webpage. |
| MayaJo |
| Almost 12,000 recipes are available at MayaJo. The site gives a competitive advantage to other recipes site as it provides video demonstrations alongside with text explanations.
Recipe ranges from desserts, meat, pasta, pastry to seafood. It provides users with a wide spread of recipe and also allows them to find recipe base on their preferences. MayaJo was originally developed by Mike Peters[4] |
| Softango |
| Since 2010, Softango is known to be the leading software download site. It provides online users with a large variety of shareware and freeware for free downloads. They aim to offer users with fast and safe software downloads, for example anti-virus software and PDF converters.
This competes against popular major downloading sites like Softonic and Download.com. However, with publicity via social media, it achieved about 20 million to 30 million unique visitors per month. For that, Softango managed to climb up to the fourth rank among all downloading sites worldwide in a short period of time. |
| See Similar |
| This webpage provides shoppers to compare similar products online by searching for the brand name. The page allows visual search comparison of brands. |
| eAnswers |
| eAnswers aim to celebrate the best aspects of the web by collaborating answers, and providing free knowledge and support. Everyone is free to contribute onto the webpage by posting questions or contributing from his or her experience to enrich the question.
It covers a diverse range of topics from technology, news, sports, celebs, dating, business, travel and so much more. To ensure the reliability of their answers, eAnswers tracks users’ by calculating their contributions. From their contributions based on questions answered and commented, ‘trust points’ are generated where a higher figure represents higher reliability of the user. |
| Speed Analysis |
| It is a free global Internet connection testing webpage. This provides user with free service to check their current Internet connection. They aim to boost and help users maximise their performance and speed of the Internet connection.
With frequent updates and check, SpeedAnalysis ensures that the computer would function well and getting the speed Internet provider promised. |
| Be Gamer |
| Game portal is founded in 2010, that seeks to provide quality, social network games. It has a wide range of different games classified by categories and could be accessed by users via their computer and mobile devices.
Games are developed by a small Slovak Studio for video games which iBario managed to acquired. |
| Zula Games |
| Similar to BeGames, it offers games online group by categories like action, adventure and board games. It works and is downloadable together with ZulaGames toolbar. These features are powered by Besttoolbars and integrates into user’s web browsers.
ZulaGames toolbar is a web browser toolbar that helps to change browsers search and homepages. This toolbar adds search functionality from the address bar, displays of contextual advertising and also changes the default browser home page. |
| Unknown File< |
|
Another name for InstallBrain, people can download programs that can read files. Its main objective is to help web users to open a downloaded file or files received via email that have no program to open it via their computer. When the compute prompt that it does not recognize the new file which is downloaded, users simply hop over to UnknownFile.com that ensures with their rich selection of information about each file type, they would able to provide users with the best suitable type of program. It offers free download of copyrighted software like Microsoft Office. |
Security issues
The potential risk adware organizations face can be lots especially when users are allowed to install stuff on systems without consent.
Adware is often perceived as low-risk as they display unwanted popups and pop under advertisements. The pose security risks when used, by loading malware into their system upon adware installation.
In 2013, iBario’s InstallBrain adware[9] installed Mevade Botnet Trojan in a number of their systems. It grew from a million to five million users. Regardless of how attractive and beneficial it becomes for adware companies, it will still result in abuse access to user computers, to a point intentionally downloading malware.
Israeli/Ukrainian adware company then pushed a new click-fraud malware known as 'MEVADE/SEFNIT'[10] into the network of computers which was affected by the adware. The downloaded malware then takes over computers to commit click fraud or to mine bitcoins.
There are few evidences that reflect similar threat between Ukraine and iBario, namely similarities in:
- Coding
- How they connect to their respective command and control servers
- Same Ukrainian contractors have been working for the project called ‘Antivirus Check system’ for iBario
InstallBrain was then removed from iBario’s corporate website due to the installation of malware. iBario then replaced InstallBrain with UnknownFile as of 25 June 2014.
Future developments
iBario have been working on a project called ‘Antivirus Check System’ (ACS) that helps check for anti-malware detection rates before new malware are used. This system was developed to evade anti-malware detection for iBario adware.
References
- ↑ "Israeli Internet giant iBario gets out in the limelight - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East". Retrieved 2015-04-20.
- ↑ "Multi Product Developing Israeli High Tech Firm iBario Is Ready For The Big Leagues". Jewish Business News. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
- ↑ "IGP". www.israelgrowthpartners.com. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
- 1 2 "Mike Peters". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2015-09-15.
- ↑ "Pavel Sandler". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
- ↑ "RevenueHits on Twitter". Retrieved 2015-04-20.
- 1 2 Shama, David. "Meet iBario, Israel's $100 million Internet empire". Times of Israel. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- 1 2 Galid, Assaf. "Israeli Internet giant iBario gets out in the limelight". Al Monitor. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
- ↑ "When Adware Goes Bad: The Installbrain and Sefnit Connection". blog.trendmicro.com. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
- ↑ "On the Actors Behind MEVADE/SEFNIT" (PDF). 2014.