BitTorrent has gotten a bit of a bad reputation ever since its inception. A lot of people associate BitTorrent with illegal downloads and piracy, even though the company has been working hard on adding legitimate services. Unfortunately, the company will shut down BitTorrent Now, its ad-supported music and video streaming platform.
The idea behind BitTorrent Now was quite brilliant: content creators could distribute their video and music in an ad-supported manner. Rather than relying on centralized platforms, the BitTorrent protocol would create a distributed network of users distributing and sharing the content in question. More shares equal more revenue, which seems to be perfect for all parties involved.
Even though this service was only launched a few months ago, the project has been put on ice indefinitely. Both CEOs running this initiative have been laid off, and an unknown number of staffers will be let go as well. All of this information is reported by Variety, although the company has yet to issue an official statement regarding the situation.
If there is any truth to these developments, things are not looking good for BitTorrent as a company. Creating a “free market’ of Internet sharing is the ultimate objective, and its peer-to-peer technology certainly makes it possible. Unfortunately, most people take advantage of this technology for piracy reasons rather than legitimate use cases.
But the problems don’t end there for BitTorrent, as the company has allegedly closed down a studio in Los Angeles used for the BitTorrent Now initiative. The once-popular bundles, including content by indie artists, will be removed as well. This makes sense though, as the company was “bleeding money” on the BitTorrent Now venture.
For the time being it remains unclear as to what will happen with BitTorrent as a company. Venturing into the legitimate content distribution business is a costly endeavor, and it has not paid for the company so far. Focusing on the protocol and distributed peer-to-peer technology seems to be the best option for now.
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