BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data over the internet.[vague] BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and it has been estimated that it accounted for roughly 27% to 55% of all Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of February 2009.
Programmer Bram Cohen designed the protocol in April 2001 and released a first implementation on July 2, 2001. It is now maintained by Cohen's company BitTorrent, Inc. There are numerous BitTorrent clients available for a variety of computing platforms.
As of 2011 BitTorrent has 100 million users and a greater share of network bandwidth than Netflix and Hulu combined