RapidShare.ro Is Back Online

In 2006 I pulled the plug on rapidshare.ro after a cease-and-desist letter received from rapidshare.com and 9 months of free service.

I reactivated the domain for a different role – visitors will not be able to upload and share files through this website anymore, but instead I will keep an eye on the industry and comment on the filehosting offers available on the market. Maybe share some behind-the-scenes experience as well and publish good offers when I find them.

From a technology point of view, filehosting is one of the simplest yet daunting online services possible. The hardware requirements are of enterprise-class, the bandwidth and traffic volumes comparable to the overall activity of a small webhosting company. Dealing with security threats, mitigating the copyright infringement risks, policing the users and on top of it running a paid premium service and any other monetization plans make a handful even for skilled webmasters.

What does the future hold for filehosting providers?

My best guess is that upload services will be around for a while. The overhead of sending large files over e-mail cannot be easily solved, in spite of “unlimited” storage space offers from the likes of Google. P2P filesharing requires a thick client and has a lot of negative publicity around it. Running your own hosting domain is an overkill unless you are a heavy user, and even so securing a website and managing credentials is still limited to tech-savvy Internet users with time on their hands.

The filehosting providers are well-positioned to take advantage of the newest technologies, be it hardware (faster networks and storage arrays, lower power consumption) or software (cloud-computing, distributed storage, geolocation-based delivery, mashups). There is a market for filesharing within a social network or group of individuals, and huge untapped potential deriving from mobile Internet and the emerging Netbook segment with their limited internal storage capacity. Monetization remains the biggest challenge, and services relying on pennies from “premium” accounts will probably find it harder and harder to stay afloat against the innovative newcomers launching with every technology life-cycle. If you plan to start a business in this segment, bookmark my website and by all means engage in conversation.

Tags: rapidshare