Comments on: Stage6 Moves Into Stage404 http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/03/05/stage6-moves-into-stage404/ Wed, 31 Aug 2011 01:39:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Davis http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/03/05/stage6-moves-into-stage404/comment-page-1/#comment-138584 Davis Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:23:10 +0000 http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/03/05/stage6-moves-into-stage404/#comment-138584 Sadly I fear that it was mismanagement. To walk away from this kind of opportunity seems misguided. The stats that I've seen on the traffic would seem to indicate that approximately 10% of copyrighted traffic was in the form of direct downloads. For most of Stage6's 19 million users, downloading wasn't important, but for the pirates, this feature has a tremendous amount of value. If they could have gotten just 1% of their user base to subscribe to a $10 a month premium membership that allowed for downloads, it would have created enough reoccurring revenue to almost pay for the bandwidth. If the users would have been given a choice between paying for Stage6 or seeing it shut down, there is little doubt in my mind that at least 200,000 people would have been willing to pay for this. There may be legal implications for DivX around this kind of business model, but to see them abandoned the site without even trying has been really depressing to watch. Sadly I fear that it was mismanagement. To walk away from this kind of opportunity seems misguided. The stats that I’ve seen on the traffic would seem to indicate that approximately 10% of copyrighted traffic was in the form of direct downloads. For most of Stage6′s 19 million users, downloading wasn’t important, but for the pirates, this feature has a tremendous amount of value. If they could have gotten just 1% of their user base to subscribe to a $10 a month premium membership that allowed for downloads, it would have created enough reoccurring revenue to almost pay for the bandwidth. If the users would have been given a choice between paying for Stage6 or seeing it shut down, there is little doubt in my mind that at least 200,000 people would have been willing to pay for this. There may be legal implications for DivX around this kind of business model, but to see them abandoned the site without even trying has been really depressing to watch.

]]> By: Andrew Schmitt http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/03/05/stage6-moves-into-stage404/comment-page-1/#comment-138573 Andrew Schmitt Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:47:21 +0000 http://davisfreeberg.com/2008/03/05/stage6-moves-into-stage404/#comment-138573 I don't follow DivX but heard from an operator of datacenters that stage 6 traffic was deeply underappreciated. This is from a guy who would have seen the bits and known for sure. For all of the attention given to high traffic sitesand their corresponding valuations how is it that DivX was unable to capitalize on these 'eyeballs'? Either Stage6 is the leading indicator of a Web2.0 deflation of they really mismanaged a high-potential business. I don’t follow DivX but heard from an operator of datacenters that stage 6 traffic was deeply underappreciated. This is from a guy who would have seen the bits and known for sure.

For all of the attention given to high traffic sitesand their corresponding valuations how is it that DivX was unable to capitalize on these ‘eyeballs’? Either Stage6 is the leading indicator of a Web2.0 deflation of they really mismanaged a high-potential business.

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