Hello,
I started to mention it in a previous news but DriversCloud is going bad since a long time. Until recently, the revenues of the site allowed me to pay myself, even if very modestly. It's not possible anymore and it's even difficult to support the operating costs. I had to find another job, at the expense of the time I can devote to the site. And the future of the site remains precarious, with a real risk that it will be run at a loss. This would mean the death of DriversCloud.
The problems encountered
I wanted to start by explaining the problems encountered because there are several.
The main one is the financing by advertising. At the launch of the site, I chose this model of remuneration because it would make my site accessible to the greatest number, without imposing a subscription which would exclude the less fortunate. But for years now, financing by advertising has been less and less viable. Many French sites have already closed for this reason. Some have made the difficult transition to premium, others have not. Let's face it, we can't ask people to have a subscription for all their media or websites.
The second problem is the loss of interest in the pilot market. When I created this site almost 20 years ago, it was based on the fact that Windows Update was not doing the job well. With the new versions of Windows it is less and less useful to use a third party driver installation software. This has been the main cause of traffic loss for years. Good for the users. For DriversCloud, there are fixed costs that do not change (there are always as many drivers) but revenues that decrease (less visitors). The accounting balance is more and more difficult.
The third point is the increasing difficulty (cost) to fill in the drivers' information correctly. For years, several big manufacturers have been using techniques that prevent automatic retrieval of drivers and their information (web scraping), which means more manual work. Some, like Logitech option+ drivers, now make it impossible to retrieve the INF files that are essential for DriverCloud to work.
The solutions
Since the existence of the site in almost 20 years I have never asked for money but the current situation requires it. I have set up a donation system on the site. Click on donate at the top left of the site if you want the site to stay alive. I put the link in French at the bottom of the page. A BIG THANK YOU to all those who can help me and especially help the site to simply exist.
In April 2022, I prepared the future by starting again from scratch the technical base of the site, to ensure its future evolution, as well as the ergonomics of the site to adapt it to the mobile. These efforts are starting to pay off and will be decisive for the future.
The idea is to support me while I prepare the next steps, including a transition to a freemium/premium model with new services that will be partially paid. I don't intend to charge for the existing services and for me the access to the drivers will remain free.
In the short term, the driver market is destined to disappear. With the rise of Windows Update, but especially the future developments of Windows around sandboxes, I think Microsoft will prohibit the manual installation of drivers. That's why I'm currently working on new troubleshooting services that I think my community will like.
If the present situation is difficult, the future is not so dark and as you see the transition to a more financially solid DriverCloud is already underway. I work alone, as mentioned I don't even pay myself for this work, so your help will be crucial, if only for the morale to help me make the joint towards the future DriverCloud.
Thanks to you !
