NOTE: I'm reposting the same message I put up this morning to
open the blog back up for comments. Rest assured, we are reading
what you write and appreciate the outpouring.
I’m Tom (aka Spinner), a Stage6 user and an employee of DivX, Inc.,
the company behind the service. I’m writing this message today to
inform you that we plan to shut down Stage6 on February 28, 2008.
Upload functionality has already been turned off, and you’ll be
able to view and download videos until Thursday.
I know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many
Stage6 users, and I’d like to take a few moments to explain the
reasons behind our decision.
We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators
and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6
began as an experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that
it might not succeed.
In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own
initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We
helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great
videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove
that it’s possible to distribute true high definition video on the
Internet. And we helped broaden the Internet video experience by
offering content that is compatible with DVD players, mobile
devices and other products beyond the PC.
So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is
that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive
enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and
resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide.
There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the
day it’s really as simple as that.
Now, why didn’t we think of that before we decided to create Stage6
in the first place, you may ask? That’s a good question. When we
first created Stage6, there was a clear need for a service that
would offer a true high quality video experience online because
other video destinations on the Internet simply weren’t providing
that to users. A gap existed, and Stage6 arrived to fill it.
As Stage6 grew quickly and dramatically (accompanied by an
explosion of other sites delivering high quality video), it became
clear that operating the service as a part of the larger DivX
business no longer made sense. We couldn’t continue to run Stage6
and focus on our broader strategy to make it possible for anyone to
enjoy high quality video on any device. So, in July of last year we
announced that we were kicking off an effort to explore strategic
alternatives for Stage6, which is a fancy way of saying we decided
we would either have to sell it, spin it out into a private company
or shut it down.
I won’t (and can’t, really) go into too much detail on those first
two options other than to say that we tried really hard to find a
way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by
selling it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two
scenarios was possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the
lights off and cease operation of the service.
So that’s where we are today. After February 28, Stage6 will cease
to exist as an online destination. But the larger DivX universe
will continue to thrive. Every day new DivX Certified devices
arrive on the market making it easy to move video beyond the PC.
Products powered by DivX Connected, our new initiative that lets
users stream video, photos, music and Internet services from the PC
to the TV, are hitting retail outlets. We remain committed to
empowering content creators to deliver high quality video to a wide
audience, and we’ll continue to offer services that will make it
easy to find videos online in the DivX format.
It’s been a wild ride, and none of it would have been possible
without the support of our users. Thank you for making Stage6
everything that it was.