Photobucket
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
Some sections are still being researched2 / 4
Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Photobucket was an image-hosting website and online community founded in 2003 by Alex Welch and Darren Crystal, backed by Trinity Ventures. It let users upload, store, organise and share photos and videos; at its peak it hosted over 10 billion images from 100 million registered members and accounted for 2% of US internet traffic. Its links powered avatars, blog embeds and eBay/Craigslist listings across the web.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Alex Welch and Darren Crystal found Photobucket (May 2003); Trinity Ventures backs the photo-sharing site.
- Fox acquisition
Fox Interactive Media (MySpace's parent) acquires Photobucket for about $250 million plus earn-out.
- Ontela acquisition
In December 2009, News Corp sells Photobucket to Seattle mobile-imaging startup Ontela (reported ~$60 million); Ontela renames itself Photobucket Inc. and continues operating the site.
- Free hosting ended
In June 2017 Photobucket ends free third-party hosting, requiring a $99/year (or $399/year for embeds) subscription — a controversial change that broke millions of web images.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.