Zippyshare, a pioneering free online file hosting and sharing website, is retiring after 17 years of service. Users have two weeks to back up their important files before the final shutdown.
Zippyshare is over! Or almost. The famous free online storage and sharing site was launched in 2006 and will close its doors at the end of March 2023 after 17 years of service, giving users two weeks to save their important files before disappearing forever. Curiously, as their managers explain in a press release published on their blog on March 19, this closure is not due to legal actions arising from complaints from rights holders about the presence of illegally copied files – one of the most common of this type of platforms.. – but, more prosaically, for economic reasons, humbly acknowledging that their model is no longer adapted to the customs of the time …
End of Zippyshare: an outdated business model
In fact, with around 45 million monthly visits, the site has lived entirely on advertising since its inception, offering its services for free in exchange for viewing ads. However, as more and more users install ad blockers — ad-blockers, in technical jargon like AdBlock or uBlock Origin — in their browsers, the number of ads displayed has steadily decreased over the years, forcing Zippyshare admins to always integrate advertising in order to their income to maintain, leading them into a vicious cycle. More recently, Zippyshare executives have had to contend with dramatic increases in energy prices as their utility bills skyrocketed and their operating expenses soared. After all, as they honestly admit, Zippyshare hasn’t evolved much since its inception: its simple interface has become dated and its maximum file size is limited to 500MB, which is little compared to what’s on offer today on similar platforms – and a lot more popular – like MediaFire, Uptobox, 1fichier or Mega.
“The arguably very simple formula of the services we offer is slowly running out. I think every competing file storage service provider on the market looks better, offers better performance and more features. ‘Needs a dinosaur like us’,” explain the Zippyshare administrators , clear. “In the past year, electricity prices have increased by a factor of 2.5, which, together with a large number of servers, leads to a significant increase in costs that we cannot compensate for,” they continue before thankfully ending their farewell message. “You can send us your comments (we will read them all…) to: [email protected]. Thank you for being with us all these years.” Admittedly, there is no shortage of solutions for free online hosting and file sharing these days, but the closure of this emblematic site will surely touch the hearts of the oldest regulars.. .