Stage6 from DivX is shutting down

I went to visit my old time favorite Stage6 site from DivX, which most of you readers of my blog are familiar with, by now, and was stunned to learn that they are closing.

I am saddened by this news, and will have to revise some of my high quality Watch videos back to their inferior YouTube equivalents.

So what went wrong? As Simply stated on their front page announcement, the service was costing them tons of money and resources, which they couldn’t continue to afford. Yes, companies pay arm and a leg for Upstream traffic, which is completely unfair, if you ask me.

But what is the big difference between them and YouTube? How come YouTube is still around? Well, none, actually. YouTube was also quickly running out of cash, when big wealthy suitor in the likes of Google decided to bail them out, even offered them money, no less. Life is funny like that. Yep, I am sure Google is still sinking a lot of money into YouTube daily, as they haven’t figured out effective ways of monetizing it still. But, the big difference is that Google can afford it, while DivX Inc can’t.

Now would be a good time to start the debate again about who owns your data and your videos. Those precious movies of your grandson’s bar-mitzva that was uploaded there, and you could watch it at least twice a day — are now about to become history forever. Hope You Have Backup! But if not, rush over to Stage6 and download videos before Feb 28 shutdown.

UPDATE: TechCrunch has more details on this fiasco, but You Read It Here First, folks!

Comments #

Comment by English Grammar on 2008-02-26 19:33:18 -0500 #

No stage6, what is the point of the internet now:(

Comment by Adi R on 2008-03-01 17:44:08 -0500 #

It is very sad, yes. But, I am sure imitators continue to pop everywhere. Veoh.com is the one trying to capture State6 audience, and YouTube has been talking about improving quality and lifting 10 minutes restrictions.
Hulu.com is coming on strong also!