Angry Birds Developers Says Piracy Can Lead To New Business

While most developers and publishes laments the rise of piracy, and big Hollywood business would love to see the demise of it, Angry Birds developer Rovio Mobile believes piracy shouldn’t be viewed as all bad. The firm believes piracy could actually grow a brand.

“Rovio has some issues with piracy, not only in apps, but also especially in the consumer products,” Rovio CEO Mikael Hed explained at the Midem conference in Cannes recently.

“There are tons and tons of merchandise out there, especially in Asia, which is not officially licensed products.”

He decided that slapping lawsuits on pirates wasn’t always the best way of dealing with such situations.

“We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans,” he said.

“We do that today: we talk about how many fans we have. If we lose that fan base, our business is done, but if we can grow that fan base, our business will grow.”

According to Rovio, piracy that’s deemed harmful to their brand will surely be dealt with in the courts, but as an overall rule, the firm isn’t infatuated with illegal downloads.

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

Thanks, Guardian.