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I realize this is an April Fools Post … But with that being said, media hosting sites (image, video, even email hosting) become deceptively low margin very fas

I realize this is an April Fools Post … But with that being said, media hosting sites (image, video, even email hosting) become deceptively low margin very fast. With no ability to purge a users catalog of media, over time - a user become LESS profitable for you (because the more you’re having to store for them, the higher that user costs you). If new account growth slows, it can create a situation where you are unprofitable. Just FYI in case anyone is looking to get into this business.

stavros 3y ago
But I already charge the user for all their space, even if they fill it up.
- dartos 3y ago
  Do you charge them a one time fee for that space? If so, then your costs will eventually eclipse that. Do you charge exactly the cost of the space they use and recurring costs + some extra? If so, how did you attract users?
  - stavros 3y ago
    > Do you charge them a one time fee for that space? I feel like you didn't even look at the site. It's monthly. > Do you charge exactly the cost of the space they use and recurring costs + some extra? No, I looked at the price of the space, quadrupled it, and charged that. > If so, how did you attract users? I mean, I didn't, that's why this post is here.
    - dartos 3y ago
      Oh sorry, I didn’t know IMGZ was yours. I thought you were someone guessing at how to make money as an image hosting service.
      - stavros 3y ago
        Ahh, no, yep, I made it! I did explicitly stay away from the cloud, because it makes the service a thousand times cheaper, up to a certain scale (where I'll have a good problem, anyway).
- alberth 3y ago
  Most people wrongly price storage cost. E.g., IMGZ charges $34/500GB storage = $0.068/GB. https://imgz.org/money/ https://imgz.org/money/ When you factor in credit card fees, server cost, storage costs, bandwidth, customer support, etc. - margins become razor thin (if not unprofitable if your user base is high utilizing their plans) Even BackBlaze, known for building their own storage servers to drive down cost, they too have been losing money for years. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BLZE/financials/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALEiGoskh-tXY2YNQPsfCWZXvWrq46037TTFegq99bie3pIj9TK3m_9XCh0wr_7Sn4IpJ0cqCm2jicL6TAn-mOn9URRB8ples4jtNbteOQ4r5C3CEopd5BsmmFFr2z01qhahkyjhKfnAGIQxDazaQI9sJafPTZu6J7C0Ek7fktk6 https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BLZE/financials/?guccounter=...
  - stavros 3y ago
    > credit card fees 3.4%, so that's $1.15. > server cost That costs $5/mo and hosts another ten projects, so it's $0.50/mo > storage costs That's $4/TB/mo, so pretty ok. > bandwidth That's free, as I know better than to run this on AWS. > customer support Oh I don't reply to customers. I have to make money somehow!
Gigachad 3y ago
They also just aren’t that useful anymore. A while back, if you wanted to send someone an image, you had to host it somewhere. Now almost any platform that you could send someone a link, you can also send/embed an image. I used to be a heavy user of imgur for Reddit and irc, but I haven’t had a need for it in ages.

stavros 3y ago

But I already charge the user for all their space, even if they fill it up.

dartos 3y ago
Do you charge them a one time fee for that space? If so, then your costs will eventually eclipse that. Do you charge exactly the cost of the space they use and recurring costs + some extra? If so, how did you attract users?
- stavros 3y ago
  > Do you charge them a one time fee for that space? I feel like you didn't even look at the site. It's monthly. > Do you charge exactly the cost of the space they use and recurring costs + some extra? No, I looked at the price of the space, quadrupled it, and charged that. > If so, how did you attract users? I mean, I didn't, that's why this post is here.
  - dartos 3y ago
    Oh sorry, I didn’t know IMGZ was yours. I thought you were someone guessing at how to make money as an image hosting service.
    - stavros 3y ago
      Ahh, no, yep, I made it! I did explicitly stay away from the cloud, because it makes the service a thousand times cheaper, up to a certain scale (where I'll have a good problem, anyway).
alberth 3y ago
Most people wrongly price storage cost. E.g., IMGZ charges $34/500GB storage = $0.068/GB. https://imgz.org/money/ https://imgz.org/money/ When you factor in credit card fees, server cost, storage costs, bandwidth, customer support, etc. - margins become razor thin (if not unprofitable if your user base is high utilizing their plans) Even BackBlaze, known for building their own storage servers to drive down cost, they too have been losing money for years. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BLZE/financials/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALEiGoskh-tXY2YNQPsfCWZXvWrq46037TTFegq99bie3pIj9TK3m_9XCh0wr_7Sn4IpJ0cqCm2jicL6TAn-mOn9URRB8ples4jtNbteOQ4r5C3CEopd5BsmmFFr2z01qhahkyjhKfnAGIQxDazaQI9sJafPTZu6J7C0Ek7fktk6 https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BLZE/financials/?guccounter=...
- stavros 3y ago
  > credit card fees 3.4%, so that's $1.15. > server cost That costs $5/mo and hosts another ten projects, so it's $0.50/mo > storage costs That's $4/TB/mo, so pretty ok. > bandwidth That's free, as I know better than to run this on AWS. > customer support Oh I don't reply to customers. I have to make money somehow!

Gigachad 3y ago

They also just aren’t that useful anymore. A while back, if you wanted to send someone an image, you had to host it somewhere. Now almost any platform that you could send someone a link, you can also send/embed an image. I used to be a heavy user of imgur for Reddit and irc, but I haven’t had a need for it in ages.