Zippyshare, the popular file hosting service, is shutting down after 17 years of operation, despite 45 million monthly visits.
Zippyshare launched in 2006 and quickly grew to be one of the most popular file hosting services, offering generous size limits for free. Unfortunately, in a world where ad blocking is increasingly popular, the project can no longer afford to stay operational.
The project made the announcement on its blog:
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 project says a “vicious cycle” of ads and ad blocking helped lead to its demise:
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.
In addition to ad blocking, the cost of electricity played a role, with prices increasing 2.5x since the site’s launch.
In the meantime, Zippyshare will shut down at the end of March, and users are encouraged to download and backup their files immediately.