Wondershare
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2003 |
| Type | Public |
| Industry | Software |
| Official website | https://wondershare.com/ |
Wondershare is a company that creates software products for media creation, document manipulation, and data recovery.
Controversies
Deceptive marketing practices for data-recovery products
In a 2023 video, Louis Rossmann revealed that Wondershare produces misleading content designed to promote its "Dr.Fone" product. The article shown portrayed the software as a viable data recovery solution to a problem that cannot reasonably be fixed by software: data recovery for water damaged phones.[1] The article exhibited in Rossman's video is still available on Wondershare's website, and notably, still asserts that the software is "[the] best solution for water damaged iPhone data recovery."[2]
Limiting of license after purchase (lifetime cancellation)
- Main article: Filmora lifetime licenses terminated
Wondershare sold the product with a lifetime license in early versions of its video editing product - Filmora. However, when it introduced version 12 in December 2022, Wondershare canceled free updates for users with a lifetime license. After loud protests from users, especially after the publication on YouTube of a material publicizing the matter by Daniel Batal,[3] a long-time user and promoter of the Wondershare product, the company first explained that this time it was an "upgrade" not an "update" and the promise made in the contract was no longer valid. Then the company tried to silence Daniel Batal by copyright strike for his YouTube channel through DMCA claims.[4] Finally, Wondershare withdrew its decision and made future versions available to buyers of the lifetime license as well, but continues to use aggressive methods to try to force the purchase of updates or extensions from its customers. For example, the option to disable update checking has been removed. When starting the program, the user first sees an ad for updates. Filters for additional paid content have also been disabled, so that content belonging to the purchased regular license is lost in the mass of paid content. Exiting the program displays another ad encouraging you to purchase an extension subscription.
References
- ↑ "Filmora/Wondershare is a bad company for more reasons than you think" - youtube.com - accessed 2025-01-31
- ↑ "The Ultimate Guide: How to Recover Data from a Water Damaged iPhone" - archive.ph - archived 2025-01-16
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm90xW40c3A
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMIIwQZMFLE