Ashwin Navin
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Ashwin Navin is the President and Co-Founder of BitTorrent, Inc. He joined Bram Cohen, the inventor of BitTorrent, in 2004 and reportedly handles strategy, business and company-related matters while Cohen focuses on engineering and product development.
Before BitTorrent, Navin worked at Yahoo! from 2002 to 2004 in its Corporate Development group which handled corporate strategy and acquisitions. Before Yahoo!, Navin worked on Wall Street with Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch both as an investment banker and research analyst. Navin is a 1999 graduate of Claremont McKenna College with a dual B.A. in Government and Economics.
In 2000, Navin helped start a technology-based financial services company called Epoch Partners. Epoch was essentially the investment banking arm of several online stock brokerages including Charles Schwab, Ameritrade, and TD Waterhouse. Epoch Partners was eventually acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2001.
Navin reportedly evaluated Cohen's invention for Yahoo! in 2004. Although it was an important development for the Internet, BitTorrent was widely considered to be the bane of the film industry, because it made the Internet cost effective for large file distribution. In many cases BitTorrent was used for distribution of pirated movies and TV.
[edit] Commercializing BitTorrent
Cohen entrusted Navin with the responsibility of crafting a business model for BitTorrent with hopes of bringing BitTorrent out of the fringes and into the mainstream. Navin has assumed the public face of the company as an evangelist for its commercial viability. In 2007, Navin launched 3 commercial products: the BitTorrent Entertainment Network in February, the BitTorrent SDK in June, and BitTorrent DNA in October.
To catalyze BitTorrent's commercialization, Navin began by engaging movie industry executives directly. Although predicted by many to be highly unlikely, BitTorrent has struck relationships with many major media companies including Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, MTV, Lionsgate, Kadokawa Pictures, and others [1] [2] The BitTorrent Entertainment Network, features mainstream movies and TV shows licensed from major media companies delivered with the BitTorrent protocol.
Navin has also announced the availability of a P2P content delivery service called BitTorrent DNA. According to him, "The Internet has become an essential source of entertainment for everything from music, games to TV shows, and even high-definition movies. Given the rapidly growing BitTorrent network, we already have the broadcast infrastructure in place that effectively multiplies the scale of the existing Internet to handle the next wave of content distribution. Implementing BitTorrent DNA on top of legacy infrastructure has the profound impact of allowing our customers to deliver a better user experience, higher quality video, faster software downloads, all with the security and reliability of a managed service."
Services deployed using BitTorrent DNA or with the BitTorrent protocol, require the end user to install a BitTorrent client on the PC receiving data from the service. The BitTorrent SDK is a BitTorrent client designed to operate on non-PC devices. In Navin's words, BitTorrent aims to close the gap between the internet and the television by "focusing on devices that allow people to enjoy media in their living rooms." [[3]] "Given that BitTorrent is already the standard for rich content delivery on the Web; the growing ecosystem reinforces our vision to provide a very fast, intuitive and seamless way for consumers to enjoy movies, music and games." [[4]]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- BitTorrent.com's company overview page
- NPR's All Things Considered interviews Ashwin Navin
- Ashwin Navin Speaking at Stanford
- An article from sfgate.com
- Podcast with Navin's views on the Download business and DRM
- Podcast with Navin's views on BitTorrent in China
- BitTorrent's recent licensing activity
- Navin challenges the decision of Ohio University' administration to ban P2P technologies
- Navin addresses the issue of Comcast traffic shaping P2P traffic in this video
- Navin addressing the deal his company negotiated with Comcast
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