How honests are FileHosts?

[FShoppe]

FShoppe I do think you should have been honest with KWWH members on your first post, and let them know that you run a Filehost. Your title allows them to think that you are unbiased and of course obviously you are not.

I do not think I hid the fact I represent FileShoppe. I mentioned once or twice in this thread already. I am actually trying to get some information with regards to people's perception of file hosts and what they would like to see different. I also put forward a few ideas of our own of course to see what the reaction is, since no one has done what we do yet. BUT, if I have come across as 'hiding' somthing, then this was not my intention and I do apologize for this.

I will check out your thread! Thanks for the link.

FShoppe, I have checked out your site and must say it is very smart looking, but I have a couple of points and questions on it;

The instant payout is good providing you keep your word on constantly doing that, or your rep may be damaged if their are further posts/reports of delays.

I would like to be CLEAR that payouts are only made on premium downloads. We do not pay out on 'free' downloads otherwise this leaves us open to too much abuse.

And yes it is gauranteed that all paid downloads will result in an instant payout to the content provider. This is because the downloader actually pays the content provider directly. So technically, WE do not pay out, the downloader does. We simply verify payment has been made. You can look at the source code of every download page, and see how payments are split!

The charging of $10.01 per 100MB bandwidth usage may deter new would be members and uploaders from joining when they view your site and that term.

Please look again. It is $0.01, not $10.01. This means it is only 10 cents per GB!

The offer of FREE downloads is important to members, so its good that you offer that. I know that before I recommend any Filehosts to my members I always look for that . It is an incentive for them to then pay for Premium.

Yes we think offering the service for free is important. Of course we do limit the speed to 1.5Mbit, but we feel this is more than enough.

I do hope you dont mind my posting my opinions and I wish you the best of luck with your service.

Not a problem! We are welcoming comments and opinions! We wish only to improve the service and we can only go so far without user feedback.

May I ask you where you are based? as that is very important these days that members and uploaders know that for their, and their files security.
Also does your site BAN US IPs and refuse to pay out to them?, as some Filehosts are doing now.

FileShoppe is based in Hong Kong but and servers are currently located in both HK and USA. The servers mirror each other so the idea is you pick the server that is geographically closer. Though in practice, most people will find the US server to be faster. We are soon adding NL to our mirror list and possibly Switzerland and Russia as well.

No we do not ban US IPs and it is not possible for us to refuse to pay anyone. Payments do NOT come from us, they come from the downloaders.

I hope that answers your questions.

If anyone else has any questions, please feel free to ask here or send me a PM.

FShoppe Reviewed by FShoppe on 29th Feb 2012. How honests are FileHosts? Hello all, I am interested to know your thoughts on how honest file hosts are. How do you know if the statistics they show you are true? How do you know when you've had 1000 downloads, or which country they came from? Also, why does it matter where they came from? Rating: 5

[Ladybbird1]

Thank you for your prompt reply FShoppe, Im impressed.
I have answered your replies within your comments

""I would like to be CLEAR that payouts are only made on premium downloads. We do not pay out on 'free' downloads otherwise this leaves us open to too much abuse.""

I absolutely agree with this, I must admit I and my staff are sick and tired of all those that expect constant "freebies", especially those that take everything we offer on my site (all is free), and dont even bother to register, or say thanks or click the thanks button even if they do register. Its disheartening as we all dont get paid and work hard to supply good things and a good service to all.
The many guests also take a toll on the server, and mine is costly as I have a good one and pay extra for security and privacy on it. I have now limited the guests as to which sub sections' threads they can actually view. They can still view the sections but not within the threads themselves!

""And yes it is gauranteed that all paid downloads will result in an instant payout to the content provider. This is because the downloader actually pays the content provider directly. So technically, WE do not pay out, the downloader does. We simply verify payment has been made. You can look at the source code of every download page, and see how payments are split!""

Quote:
The charging of $10.01 per 100MB bandwidth usage may deter new would be members and uploaders from joining when they view your site and that term.

Please look again. It is $0.01, not $10.01. This means it is only 10 cents per GB!

OOPs my apologies, the print is so small that it is posted as US$0.01 but the $ is not that visible and looked like a 1. That certainly does make a differance from $10.01. I am so very busy that I have to speed read sometimes.

Quote:
The offer of FREE downloads is important to members, so its good that you offer that. I know that before I recommend any Filehosts to my members I always look for that . It is an incentive for them to then pay for Premium.

Yes we think offering the service for free is important. Of course we do limit the speed to 1.5Mbit, but we feel this is more than enough.

I agree and that is good of you to even offer that much, some sites I have investigated constantly have a message posted that "Free downloads are not available at this time, buy Premium"

Quote:
I do hope you dont mind my posting my opinions and I wish you the best of luck with your service.
Not a problem! We are welcoming comments and opinions! We wish only to improve the service and we can only go so far without user feedback.

Quote:
May I ask you where you are based? as that is very important these days that members and uploaders know that for their, and their files security.
Also does your site BAN US IPs and refuse to pay out to them?, as some Filehosts are doing now.

FileShoppe is based in Hong Kong but and servers are currently located in both HK and USA. The servers mirror each other so the idea is you pick the server that is geographically closer. Though in practice, most people will find the US server to be faster. We are soon adding NL to our mirror list and possibly Switzerland and Russia as well.

Be careful with that, as servers ending .com .net and I think .info are routed through Phoenix in the US and thus are very easy to be taken down by you know who.

No we do not ban US IPs and it is not possible for us to refuse to pay anyone. Payments do NOT come from us, they come from the downloaders.

That is good, as it is a question I am constantly asked.

I hope that answers your questions.

It certainly does except for these new ones ;

What does this mean;

CarrotPay Merchant ID:

You must provide a merchant ID if setting a price other than 0.

I see that this is info for Uploaders but what is CarrotPay?, and when I click the icon for an explanation, it doesnt work, and I cant find any button to register, or find your Premium Rates on your home page.

When I go onto your "make money" page it starts to give the explanation, but doesnt finish it, as so;

"What's more, payments are made DIRECTLY to you! We never hold your funds so you can be sure you always"

Also I cant find anywhere on that page or on your site about offering other site affiliations with you, do I take it you do not affiliate with sites for them to sell Premium Accts etc on your site?

Thanks

[FShoppe]

CarrotPay is the payment method we use. It can be topped up by users with Paypal/CreditCard/Bank Transfer. We choose Paypal due to their ability to process micropayments, reasonable fees of just 5% and non-reversable transactions.

I see that this is info for Uploaders but what is CarrotPay?, and when I click the icon for an explanation, it doesnt work, and I cant find any button to register, or find your Premium Rates on your home page.

It is not a 'clickable' icon. If you place your mouse over it, it should have a small box of text show up with the explanation.

When I go onto your "make money" page it starts to give the explanation, but doesnt finish it, as so;

"What's more, payments are made DIRECTLY to you! We never hold your funds so you can be sure you always"

Looks like it's stopped fetching that peice of text from the DB. Thanks for pointing that out! We will fix that ASAP.

Also I cant find anywhere on that page or on your site about offering other site affiliations with you, do I take it you do not affiliate with sites for them to sell Premium Accts etc on your site?

This is an accountless system. Users do not sign up, and users do not pay any monthly/annual fees so there are no premium/affiliate referals to be paid.

There are two ways to get paid with FileShoppe.

Upload content (you should have the right to distribute any content uploaded on the server as we do comply with DMCA take down requests). And you can set a price for that file. If the price is NOT $0.00, the FREE downloads are not available. Premium downloads are available at $0.01 /100MB and content providers will recieve 20% of the sale value.

If a price is set ($0.01 +), then the content provider recieve 99% of the price charged, or the full price less the bandwidth fee (also $0.01/100MB).

The SECOND way to earn money is to share OTHER peoples content. The content provider will still recieve their payment, but the sharer will recieve 10% of the sale value. This 10% is taken from the content provider's share. So for shared content, the content provider can recieve upto 89%, the sharer recieves 10% and we recieve 1%.