Angry Birds Chief Exec: “Piracy May Not Be A Bad Thing”

Rovio Mobile chief executive Mikael Hed has learnt how to deal with piracy. Speaking at the Midem conference in Cannes, he said:

“We have some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products. There is tons and tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products. We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy.”

On the other hand, as long as the Angry Birds pirates aren’t harming the brand, the popularity and spread of the product can’t be that bad for Rovio:

“Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day.”

Speaking of exactly what Rovio has learnt from the music industry and the way they’ve dealt with piracy, Mikael Hed said:

“We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have. If we lose that fanbase, our business is done, but if we can grow that fanbase, our business will grow.”

Rovio Mobile also see the incredibly popular Angry Birds app as a way of selling and perhaps partnering with music artists:

“Already our apps are becoming channels, and we can use that channel to cross-promote – to sell further content. The content itself has transformed into the channel, and the traditional distribution channels are no longer the kingmakers.”

It remains to be seen exactly how Angry Birds and apps in general deal with piracy.

Source: The Guardian