Softonic Company blog

Today we are here to witness the beginning of a new friendship, between Softonic Moba, Softonic’s official mobile app and Android, one of the biggest operating systems out there.

From now on, users with an Android Smartphone will be able to enjoy a new way to discover, download and share the best apps.

This is because Softonic Moba takes it a step further, it is more than a simple app download portal, it is a gateway to Softonic content: blog posts, videos and of course, the full software catalogue for Windows, Mac and the rest of the platforms.

This is possible thanks to the effort of a lot of people. From the different departments here at Softonic who have nourished our “new born” with their ideas, to the iPhone version users, launched two months ago, who have made their comments and suggestions, helping us improve Softonic Moba. A big thank you to all!

Softonic Moba is available at Softonic and in the Android Market. What are you waiting for? Start enjoying your mobile Softonic style!

Free Download Softonic Moba for Android here.

Each year, we celebrate Christmas in advance at Softonic. This way, we can all enjoy the big party before people go back home for the holidays.

Last Friday, December 16^th, Softonic HQ was filled with Christmas spirit: wrapping paper from the Secret Santa, lights, wreaths, even those bright red Santa Claus hats…

Can you imagine more than 200 people opening their Secret Santa presents at once… It was amazing! After that great moment, the tables were covered with wrapping paper and ribbons, since everybody ran to either participate or cheer for their favorite teams in the game room finals. We were able to witness moments of glory and defeat with FIFA, foosball, Dance Central and Buzz.

The winners got their prices during our dinner party at the Juan Carlos I Hotel. We had a great time, lots of laughter, dancing and… lots of tweets! That’s because, this year we wanted to become Trending Topic with a special hashtag created for our party. Following that hashtag we were able to see on real-time what was happening around Softonic HQ and during the dinner party at night. All sorts of fun situations were tweeted, pictures of Secret Santa gifts, doubts on what to wear for the party, the arrival at the hotel, requests for the DJ, and… we are glad to announce, that during the morning, we reached the 6^th most tweeted about topic in Spain!

With so many people tweeting about the subject during the dinner party; who knows, we might have even reached it at night also! The thing is we were having way too much fun to check it out!

From all of us here at Softonic, we want to wish you all happy holidays and a great new year for 2012!

Enjoy your holidays! Enjoy Software!

Last week, Softonic took part in the Madrid leg of an app showcase like no other by offering our expertise and knowledge of apps in order to judge some of the best.

Presented as a ‘traveling showcase of the most creative and innovative apps’ AppCircus boasts interesting new software and introduces its aspiring creators to the public. In reality, the ‘circus’ has a lot more performances in stock, such as valuable crash courses in app design (by successful startups) and advisory sessions by established software companies.

This edition of AppCircus was held at the UC3 (Universidad Carlos III) in Madrid, taking full advantage of the inspiring environment for both developers and the sponsors present. A total of 10 developers were able to present their apps in front of a jury, while sponsors were given ample opportunities to invite young programmers to start developing for their platforms! Softonic formed part of the jury with Merijn de Boer (Editor, mobile expert) at the front row.

It’s just one of the many ways we get involved and interact with those on the forefront of cutting-edge new software outside of the office!

Since Softonic started in 1997, we have worked very hard to improve every day .

During almost 15 years, we have gone from working in a tiny office, where a small amount of people took care of all the tasks, to having 5 offices in different continents where more than 260 people work together as a team; always keeping that same spirit which we began with.

Today we have great news we want to share with all of you: Softonic has reached 4 million daily downloads!

This is more than just a number. It is a milestone, which we have achieved thanks to constant effort, our users’ trust and the goal to follow our mission: to help people discover and enjoy software to enhance their lives.

Join us and let’s celebrate 4 million reasons to enjoy Software.

If you want to see the full infographic, click here.

If you remember, back in January, we expanded at the Meridian building and we opened a new office on the 17 th floor at our headquarters in Barcelona. Today we are happy to share with you some pictures of our latest expansion to the 16th floor.

This new area has a special motif, dedicated to travelling around the world and the knowledge that we gain through opening our eyes to other cultures. This floor will become the new home for our colleagues from the Content Team (they are the ones who analyze, try, and review all the software that we post on Softonic on a daily basis), the Costumer Service Team (our voice and contact with what’s most important to us: you guys out there) and OnGames, the site that specializes in PC and Console video gaming content, which is part of the Softonic Universe.

We keep growing to continue offering you the best from the software world!

If you want to join the Softonic Team, don’t hesitate and check our job offers. We’re looking for talent!

In 2012, it will be 15 years since Softonic was launched. During all this time we’ve worked really hard to make our website yours.

It went from a final college project by our President & Founder Tomas Diago, to a user community of more than 100 million monthly users. We went from a small office in Cerdanyola del Valles, to a great headquarters in an amazing building in Barcelona with more than 210 team members from 32 different nationalities.  We evolved from a big online software library, to a full on software service central for our users.

Nowadays, Softonic is not only a download site. We’re also a site available in 10 different languages, with its specific local taste when it comes to reviews written by native speaking editors. In Softonic you’ll find software specialized blogs with posts from our expert editors and we also have a site specifically for you gamers out there. We’ve recently launched a Q&A site with all things software and a Smartphone app that has become a great guide for our users when it comes to finding the best apps out there. We have our very own advertising platform, a Security Seal that makes us the safest website in the world, a web apps platform, where applications are not downloaded since they’re available through the browser and lots of amazing projects still to come.

That’s why the day has come when we’ve decided to change our slogan. Let’s say goodbye to “Let’s download!” and prepare ourselves to receive with a welcoming smile “Enjoy Software!”.

It is the best way to reflect our mission of helping people discover and enjoy the best software to enhance their lives.

Enjoy Softonic, Enjoy Software!

This past October 4th, Softonic participated in CEATEC, Japan’s biggest technology fair. Alexander Schwarz our Vice President of Business Development gave a conference alongside Takashi Uchida of Country Manager for Softonic Japan.

Tokyo had some intense rain during that day, but it didn’t stop people from coming to listen to Alexander and fill the room. He spoke about the past, present, and future of the Apps Market, while Takashi reminded the audience how Softonic helps out with the distribution. The Japanese site was “born” in 2010, and it has worked its way up, bit by bit in the Asian country. It’s thanks to the hard work from our colleagues at the Tokyo office and the opportunity conferences like this one give us to demonstrate Softonic’s potential and what we are capable of doing. More than 95% of the audience said after the presentation that they were interested in trying out our services!

From our trip to Japan we learned a lot of things, specially an ancient Confucianism proverb that says: “Develop new ideas from based on past experiences”.

Because in the end, that’s what it’s all about: evolving taking into account what we’ve learned.

The news shocked us. Steve Jobs, Apple’s former CEO, visionary, innovator and craftsman of great ideas that led to projects that changed the way we understand the world, passed away last night, victim of a disease that didn’t respect his signature energy and passion for life.

Apple is a reference and Jobs was part of its soul. He founded the company with his college friend Steve Wozniak when he was 21. The dream that started in a suburban garage eventually turned into a brand that changed our concept about computers, to revolutionize society and with that, people’s lives.

Today at Softonic we pay homage , out of admiration, respect and the shared idea that technology , without a doubt, can change the world.

In the words of our Founder & President, Tomás Diago: “Steve Jobs has brought technology closer to people. His vision and passion established a landmark and will remain an influence in the computers industry for many years”

We would like to share with you this link with Job’s most remarkable quotes, that show his charisma and proves that a person never dies when he has left so much behind him before departing.

Image Source: http://www.t3.com

Here at Softonic we’re pleased to announce the launch of an all-new feature (since we love to surprise you!). Starting today, you can participate in Softonic Answers, a user-driven community where you can share information and opinions about software.

Softonic Answers is now online in two languages: Spanish and English. It was created to offer our users a forum for asking questions, finding the software that best suits their needs, recommending programs, and offering useful tips to others. It’s our way of recognizing that you, our users, are also software experts and deserve a place where you can prove it.

Softonic Answers lets you ask questions, receive a message whenever an answer is posted, provide answers to other users’ questions, follow forum debates on topics of interest to you, and even have a chance to be ranked as a “top expert” if other members of the user community rate your contributions as the best answers to users’ questions.

Although you need to be a registered Softonic user to participate in all the site’s activities, nonregistered users are granted full access to community content, can search for information of interest to them, and have the right to vote for the best answers to users’ questions.

We hope you like the design! Subjects are classified by category to make it easier for users to find the information they’re looking for quickly and effectively.

In the words of our founder and president Tomás Diago, “we’ve been working for a long time on the development of this platform in order to offer our users the most convenient and useful community possible. Our goal is to provide a space that offers users an opportunity to find answers to their questions and share their knowledge about software with others.”

We hope you’ll join us soon at Softonic Answers!

If big projects are built bit by bit, if dreams come true thanks to time and effort; it’s only fair to say that today at Softonic, we feel extremely proud we’ve reached this goal: we’ve surpassed 100 million unique users!*

This number is the biggest ever achieved by a Spanish Internet company and places Softonic among the main European websites based on audience.

Since it was founded in 1997, Softonic has been growing at an incomparable rate: in 2004 we reached 2.5 million users, in three years we reached 10 million and in January 2010 this number was multiplied by five, reaching 50 million. In the past year and a half, Softonic has duplicated that number overcoming 100 million unique users. This amazing multicultural software family keeps growing every day!

In the words of Tomas Diago, Softonic’s Founder & President, there’s still room to grow. “We’re working on consolidating our presence in countries like China and the US, which will allow us to keep increasing the number of unique visits”. “Although, more than user quantity, we’re interested in offering them a quality experience that goes beyond a simple download, as well as being available for them on their mobile device. In order to do just that, we’ve just launched Softonic Moba, our very own application, which helps our users manage app downloads more efficiently on their iPhone or Android Smartphone”.

* August 2011, according to Nielsen/OJD audience data.