Ask HN: Any prospect in this site made in 4 hours?

[Kudose]

Frequent reader, first submission. :)

I had an idea which turns out to be similar to yousendit.com and built out a prototype at http://www.volatilefile.com

The idea is to give out free file sharing up to a certain file size for 5 downloads or 3 days, which ever comes first. A small fee of maybe a couple bucks would be charged for large files (to be implemented). I read about how bit.ly analyzes data and sells it, so I was curious if anyone sees any monetization of this site other than advertisements? I store the file name, remote IP and time stamp, then move the info to an archive table when it is removed. I do not store the files themselves for more than 3 days.

Any feedback is appreciated, even feedback about my horrible design and no logo. :)

[devmonk]

If you make money on this, it will be because people didn't do their homework. This is not a new market, and there are a ton of free options that allow really large downloads (FileFactory, etc.).

I think the only way you'd make headway is to focus on customer service and presentation:

- Provide a way to directly download the file via link vs. having to visit a page first.

- Be very specific about the amount of time the file will be hosted, and tell the customer that you will contact them at the email address provided to remind them prior to expiry that it will expire. There will also be a defined period of time following expiry when the file would stay there until payment was made to extend the contract before the file was removed.

- Be clear about how you store the files (using some well-known enterprise provider, or describe the fault tolerance enough where people feel safe).

- Site must look very legit so that customers will really believe that you will take care of them.

- Limited downloads or time limit is not something people are looking for. I think the companies that did rate limiting slow downloads that require customers to buy faster download had a better model, even though I never bought one. However, you can't do this and handle the first requirement of direct URL to download, so maybe you could offer both; if the customer wanting you to host the download wants a direct URL, they can pay you for that on subscription basis, in which case their customers would not have to wait on the download; otherwise, the customer downloading the file has to pay subscription for a faster download.

Realistically though you can't compete with larger companies doing massive storage. They will win on pricepoint. The best chance you have would be better service and usability, but imo it is a waste of your time.

[jonafato]

I like it so far. The site does seem a bit empty (expected for 4 hours), but there is nothing inherently bad about the design. A few comments about using it:

1) I think it would really benefit from displaying the expiration date / number of downloads left. Right now, there don't seem to be any pages for the files, but being able to see what I'm downloading before doing so would also be great.

2) You might benefit from giving some shorter links. This seems like something that would be used on twitter or the like, and links that take up over half the allowed characters could be detrimental to adoption. One could use a URL shortener, but I'd personally like to avoid more indirection than necessary.

As for monetization, my first thought would be to sell extra downloads / longer time. You could also try selling larger file sizes.

[dotBen]

The problem with these sites is that transferring large files is not really a problem businesses have that much - certainly not to the extent where they want to buy accounts on sites like this.

The people who do need this kind of services are independent musicians, folks wanting to spread underground music (dubstep, grime, etc) and warez. I've been known to dable in those scenes. There is no money in it, but people with skill who will try to subvert your service

I know from speaking to folks who ran the service you mentioned in your post that they were always fighting battles to keep the hackers out, the porn out and just dismayed to see their site being used to share music and other non-monetizable content.

[jiaaro]

haha I was wondering the same thing:

http://esploded.com

edit: I have the code for expiring files in my local mercurial branch, and I've been wondering whether to push it

edit2: I don't think your design is so bad :)

I was thinking of the file expiry as more of a way to push people onto paid plans.

I was planning to expire the file after a week, but allow the uploader to re-enable hosting for that file for the next year (so I'd have the file on the server for a year, and if the person comes back, they can pay a couple dollars and the file would be hosted for some more time.

This is a very half baked plan, but I think it could work.

[maguay]

Sounds pretty similar to Drop.io (without the notes and chat features), but with a shorter download timeframe. Not to say it can't work, just saying that there are similar services.