The file-hosting service made the announcement on Sunday (March 19, 2023) in a blog post explaining why the site was going offline by the end of March. “We’ve decided that we’re shutting down the project at the end of the month. Please make backups of your important files, you have about two weeks to do so. Until then, the site will run without any changes,” the announcement reads. “Since 2006 we have been on the market in an unchanged form, that is, as ad financed/free file hosting. However, you have been visiting in less and less over the years, as the arguably very simple formula of the services we offer is slowly running out of steam. I guess all the competing file storage service companies on the market look better, offer better performance and more features. No one needs a dinosaur like us anymore.” Despite getting 45 million users a month, several factors have contributed to the shutdown of Zippyshare’s servers, states the service. The reasons cited for the closure are the increase in electricity prices, which has gone up 2.5 times over the past year, ad blockers, and decreased revenue from advertisements, its primary source of revenue for the site, which has made it impossible for the operators to maintain the site. “All sorts of adblockers, whether built into the browser, as add-ons, or in the form of DNS services. Sure, we all use them, but they take away any control the site owner has over the site. Eventually we get to the point where a vicious cycle begins, in order to pay for the server infrastructure you are forced to place more and more ads, then users fire up more and more adblockers and we get to a point like today,” Zippyshare concluded. “There are still a bunch of smaller reasons, but we could write a book on this, and probably no one would want to read it. To sum it up, we can no longer afford to maintain the site.”
About Zippyshare
Founded in September 2006, Zippyshare has been known for its clean interface, simplicity and ease of use, allowing users to upload an unlimited amount of files with a size of up to 500MB free of cost. Also, the website does not require account registration to upload or download files, as well as it has no limitation on the number of times a file can be downloaded. Zippyshare was nominated for “notorious market” status by the RIAA in 2013. In 2015, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) listed the service as a notorious market with the report writing that Zippyshare is “well-known for downloads and distribution of allegedly infringing music” along with a warning that the website has been known to install malware on the computers of the users. Further, in 2018, the service was also noted in the music association RIAA report to the USTR, with the RIAA suggesting Zippyshare be listed as a notorious market in that year as well, writing particularly that while the website respects takedown notices, but there is no mechanic to prevent re-uploads of infringing content Since March 2019, Zippyshare has blocked access to the website for visitors in the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, and Spain with an HTTP 403 error message displayed. While no official explanation was given for the same, it is likely due to copyright issues and geo-blocking opted for as a solution. Currently, it is unclear what will happen to the domain after Zippyshare closes down at the end of the month. “Thanks for being with us over the years. See you in the depths of the Internet,” Zippyshare signs off.
