IT@TT - Online

Copernic.com develops search engines for consumer and portals use. G Menon chatted with Martin Bouchard about the company, its products, and the future.

IT@TT: Copernic has reached the magic 11.9 million users. Any special plans to celebrate 12 million?

MB: Our last celebration was at 10 million. I'm sure we will have another great celebration at 20 million. We like round numbers!

IT@TT: Can you share with us a short, potted history on the company since its beginnings as Agents Technologies?

MB: Ok. The company started in 1996. We had this vision of creating tools to help people use the Internet in a better way. Search was one of the most interesting places to start and we launched Copernic about a year later. (When I'm saying we, I mean my brother Eric and myself.) We are the two founders of the company. And, also, we are not from USA but from Canada (a fact that most people don't know!)

IT@TT: So why a name change. Is it because of a perception that English is more acceptable than French?

MB: No. Basically, our product Copernic became so successful and so well known that we had to rename the company to the product's name. Most people were unaware of Agents Technologies and only knew Copernic.

IT@TT: Can you tell us a bit more about your product streams. For B2C you have Copernic, Summarizer and Shopper. And in B2B you have Aggregator

MB: Yes, exactly. Last September we launched our first B2B product, Copernic Aggregator. The company is now very committed at providing businesses with high-quality tools that we solve their information overload problems. But, unlike most Internet companies, we are still very committed to b2c also. We think we can be successful in both markets.

IT@TT: I see that Aggregator is on 3 vertical portals. Could you tell us more about them?

MB: Our first deal (and there are more coming) are mainly Sympatico-Lycos and Mednets. Sympatico-Lycos is Canada's largest portal. They wanted to create a classified ad search tool for jobs, cars, houses, etc. So they came to Copernic because of our expertise and used the Copernic aggregator product to solve their problems. We also have Mednets which is a medical vortal that use Aggregator for specialty medical search like (heart, cancer, urology, etc.) We also have some other deals in Asia.

IT@TT: Were your products inspired by a market need or are they based on user feedback?

MB: Both ways. We try to "see" the future and forecast users and businesses needs. But we also receive a lot of very good suggestions from our users. In the case of Copernic Aggregator, people were asking us: "Do you have a kind of Copernic 2000 that will run on a server and that will be Web based. We also want to be able to add our own information sources."

IT@TT: You current line-up is a mix of pay ware and ad ware. How do you guys actually make money?

MB: This is the heart of our strategy. We give away are pretty powerful version of our product - yes for FREE. Then we try to convince people to upgrade to the PLUS or PRO version of the product (with more features). So because people loves Copernic FREE a percentage of the users are willing to convert to a paid version (e.g. $39.95 US). This model has been very successful for us. We even posted a US$ 1 million profit last year. We have been profitable for the last 3 years.

IT@TT: You know that hackers targets Copernic and make available a "hacked" version often just hours after you update. What are you taking to minimize this burn?

MB: Yes. Hackers really like Copernic (laughs). As soon as we launch a new version, they post a hack on the Net in next hours (frowns). We are aware of this and try some techniques to slow them. I think that trying to find a perfect solution to counter piracy is impossible.

IT@TT: Does the installed count include hacked versions too?

MB: I guess some of them. We try to eliminate them from our database. But they still represent a small percentage our complete user base.

IT@TT: What about those who use hacked versions because they can't afford the price or can't pay due to currency restrictions?

MB: We understand that some people can't afford the PRO version at $89 US. This is very sad but it is a reality with all paid software like Microsoft Office our Adobe PhotoShop. We think that the FREE version offers a lot for $0.

IT@TT: I agree. Hacking will exist and you have to live with it. I assume you and Eric had, and have, lots to do with actual software development? Or have you've joined the legion of managers?

MB: No. We are still very active in product development. Of course our job has changed a lot. We are now 70 full-time employees at Copernic. But developing high-quality products is very important for us so we put a lot of our time on this. I don't see this changing in the future.

IT@TT: Your products are available in 5 European languages. Why not in Asian ones like Chinese, Japanese or Hindi. You have included The Web-India now as a search category.

MB: We already have Japanese and Chinese. We intend to extend this to other languages. Maybe Hindi will be added in a near future if we got enough demand.

IT@TT: Copernic 2001 is a dream to use; especially in comparison to its predecessors. But it's on the road to bloat ware with all those included engine bundles. Any comments

MB: I agree. We now have more than 1000 engines. I can tell you that the next version will have a complete revamp of the interface and will let you manage your interface and categories in a much better way.

IT@TT: As someone using the product from '96, do we really needs skins and other visual enhancements? This is a serious tool not a for-recreational use

MB: Yes and no. I don't think skins are only seen as toys. Next versions of Windows will let you skin and change the look and feel of the interface. I think some users really likes skins and others not. We used skins internally for our own use and decided to "publicise" our standard due to demand.

IT@TT: Can we talk about Shopper. How is this supported? And what has been the user response?

MB: Shopper is still in beta. We wanted to really get comments and feedback from users. So far, we have very positive comments. We will launch a 1.0 version soon with the comments from all our users. Day after day, we get new users (not bad for a beta version)

IT@TT: Will Shopper remain ad ware will the final release be pay ware?

MB: Both. Same model as Copernic 2001: Free and Plus.

IT@TT: I really liked Summarizer. As a product and the results it generates out of the box. Any plan of updating it to include more source data types.

MB: Yes. We intend to add new format like PDF. We also have been working hard on improving the quality of summary especially for long documents. This product will evolve very quickly. Users will be amazed by what this technology really can do besides creating summaries

IT@TT: When I installed Copernic 2K I got a link to Systrans on-the-fly translation. How does this arrangement work?

MB: We work with another Canadian company called ALIS. They provide us the translation service (they also provide Netscape 6 with the same service). They work with Systran and other providers like Reverso for French and Russian translation.

IT@TT: Many of my readers too dream of developing their killer app using funding. As someone who's making a profit what's your stand: try a VC first or strike out on your own

MB: We were able to develop our business without any VC's. But it is not always possible to do this. I would say that it depends on the timing, the product, the market, etc... But the more you can go by yourself, the better...

IT@TT: Do you have any plans of offering older versions at heavily discounted prices

MB: No, not now. The main reason is that we don't charge for upgrades right now. For example, a Copernic 98 PLUS user can upgrade to Copernic 2001 PLUS for free. We try to respect our registered users.

IT@TT: Do you have any other applications that you have under wraps but could give us a nibble

MB: Okay, just a little bit... We have a product in development that will be able to automatically classify your emails and your documents. That's all I can say.

IT@TT: Do you have any plans of expanding into Asia? Or outsourcing your development to countries like India to take advantage of lower overheads and the time difference?

MB: Yes. I would also like to mention that we are really open at partnering with Indian Internet companies. We are aware of what's going on in your country and think we could find some win-win partnerships.

IT@TT: Finally, could you share with our readers your 5 favorite web sites and why you like them.

MB: Okay, there's News.Com, Moreover.Com, Wired.Com, Business2.Com and Redherring.Com. These provide convenient information related to my job and are well designed.

Interviewed By G Menon
[email protected]

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