avast! can't stop doing ads, otherwise they would lose USERS. Users wouldn't use it, and the popularity would NEVER grow.
No company will ever stop doing ads. That would mean - nothing would be popular in the WORLD if nothing was providing ads.
The problem with that argument is that it ignores the success of avast! *before* it began this aggressive advertising. Its user base grew dynamically over many years as a result of its performance, referrals, and the popularity of its free offerings, These frequent popup ads are a relatively new innovation for avast!.
A reread of the Blog post from Vince Steckler, CEO which he penned shortly after joining avast in 2009 should give a good picture of how things used to be:
https://blog.avast.com/2009/07/20/welcome-and-why-i-joined-avast/Excerpts (emphases added):
"Here at Avast we actually believe that computer users deserve very good free protection
that
does not annoy them. So, we freely distribute our Home version. From the reviews, you can
see that it is a very, very good product. Its capabilities are not crippled. It does not
find “fictitious” problems to try and get you to upgrade to the paid product. And,
it does
not constantly annoy you asking for you to upgrade."
"Eda and Pavel grew the company from basically nothing to one that supports 80 million consumers
with no marketing or sales.
Our users have done the marketing and sales for us - they have told
their friends and colleagues; they have posted glowing reviews; they have told us what they like
and dislike."
"Eda and Pavel have always been focused on developing a great product and supporting the
community of users. They believed that
by doing those two things the company would succeed.
And it did. I am honored to be able to continue that focus."
Apparently, it's no longer good enough ...
