Filed under: Internet, Video, Web services, web 2.0
Divshare for sale, is your online media safe?
TechCrunch is reporting that online media sharing site Divshare has put its domain name and web service up for sale. And this raises an important question: what happens when you upload all of your images, movies, or audio files to an online service like Divshare, YouTube, or Flickr if that site goes out of business?Right now it's not clear what the future holds for Divshare.com. The owners are obviously selling the site, which has 200,000 registered users and a few million hits a month. A smart buyer would build on Divshare's assets and expand the business, you know, if it's profitable. But it's also possible that whoever buys the company could dramatically change the business model and either delete existing user accounts and data or start charging you to access the media you've already uploaded.
Now, we're assuming you haven't been silly enough to park valuable personal data like home movies and photos online without saving backup copies. But if you've embedded Divshare content on your blog or other sites, any serious changes to the service could turn your web site into Swiss cheese.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Christina Warren said 8:15PM on 11-23-2007
I don't know where this is going, but I don't like it. Glad I never put anything on DivShare.
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Chris Gilmer said 8:21PM on 11-23-2007
Its too bad to see DivShare change hands, they have made some really nice developments in the past little while. Who knows, could work out better. But the question remains, why not shop it around to the big boys before posting it on a forum?
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Ryan said 5:09PM on 11-24-2007
Excerpts from my Techcrunch post:
In terms of competitors, I would say the old divshare (free file hosting) is most similar to http://www.filebam.com and the newer divshare model (embeddable widgets) most similar to http://www.box.net Thats just based on my own experience.
In terms of the validity of this sale, I agree its either a pr stunt or fake — no way would a company like divshare would just post a for sale on a forum and not mention it on there blog or anywhere else.
Lets hope thats the case. Could be a major flaw in Divshares current business model — namely the high cost of streaming/embedding without the tools to advertise on that content. Divshares 200k users are most likely free users who are not subscribed (just check out where a majority of their traffic is coming from: hk, thailand, brazil, chile, based on alexa).
Professional Media and Document Sharing is great but needs some capital to maintain and grow (adsense wont cut it — boosting subscriptions would help) — box.net should buy them out since they have a strong backing.
my .02 — tracking this day by day as it intrigues me.
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Christina Warren said 10:37PM on 11-24-2007
No, I think you are right on the mark Ryan -- this whole thing is very intriguing to me too. I never used the service, partly because the few times I tried to click on DivShare links, the servers were either unbelievably slow or they were down -- and the alternatives, Box.net, Rapidshare (if it's that sort of thing) or using my own web hosting plan are just more fitting for my own needs - but the fact that the DivShare people haven't responded to the allegations or rumors (and to me, that's essentially a confirmation - because if it was a fake, then why wouldn't they spread the word - if it's a PR stunt, they might as well try to sell the domain b/c that's an easy way to never get anyone to take you seriously) and looking at the complaints from users on the site - it seems like perhaps these guys bit off more than they could chew, so to speak, and are now trying to get out while they can.
I love Valley drama.
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John said 12:47AM on 11-25-2007
come on google get this google backup!!!!!
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