Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Photobucket Ramps Up Efforts To Force Users To Become Paying Customers

Denver-based online photo storage service Photobucket appears to be in the midst of a major campaign to force the many, free users of its online photo service to become premium users, and has sent out at least four emails--including two today--telling users "Don't Risk Losing Your Memories". The company says in those emails that "You're getting dangerously close to hitting your storage limit!". Photobucket has been caught up in a scandal last week where it suddenly began replacing photo links to its service to a generic photo, asking users to "enable 3rd party hosting". Only users of Photobucket's "Plus 500" plan--which costs $39.99 a month--are allowed to link to photos on the service. Photobucket said last week that the historical model of allowing users to link to photos--and presenting ads along with those photos, is "no longer sustainable" and that the third party hosting "generates zero revenue" for the company. Photobucket said all of the changes are a "path to a more sustainable business model" for the company.