Mininova: Serving Billions of Torrents and Buying Bugattis
Mininova has evolved quite a bit since it has started three years ago. Within a year it was one of the most visited torrent sites on the Internet, and the ever increasing number of users resulted in the 4 billionth torrent download recently. Time to ask some questions.
The Mininova team has always been on top of the latest p2p developments. They recently launched a content distribution platform for independent publishers, a music streaming feature, and in the meanwhile they served billions of torrents. In fact, Mininova celebrated the 4 billionth .torrent download earlier this week.
Contrary to the Pirate Bay guys, however, the people behind Mininova prefer to lay low, and don’t speak out in public very often. We had the chance to do a short Q&A with Niek, one of the co-founders and the CEO of Mininova (yes, it’s a company).
TorrentFreak: Recently you have started to focus more on legal content, that is .torrent files uploaded by approved publishers. What are your plans with the Mininova publisher platform for the future, and will this affect the other .torrent files hosted on Mininova?
Niek: We focus on extending and improving our Content Distribution service. Publishers will see more distribution options (e.g. extensive statistics) in the near future, and users will be able to find featured content easier. Our plan is to offer the most sophisticated and scalable distribution service of the future. Functionality of “regular” torrent files will of course be kept as it is now.
TorrentFreak: The Mininova CD launched in December 2007, how many publishers are releasing their content on Mininova now?
Niek: Over 330 premium publishers are now actively using Mininova to share their content. We receive functionality requests from time to time, but overall they’re very pleased with the CD service.
TorrentFreak: Like any other BitTorrent site, Mininova has to deal with a huge number to DMCA takedown requests from copyright holders. How is your relationship with the people who want you to remove .torrent files from your index?
Niek: I would say that in general the relationship with copyright owners is very good. Our copyright policy is being used by many companies and organizations when necessary. Some copyright owners are so satisfied with our service that they send stuff like collectors editions of their products :)
TorrentFreak: Mininova never had it’s own tracker. Why is this? Don’t you think you have a responsibility to help out the BitTorrent community here, especially now there are only a few reliable BitTorrent trackers out there?
Niek: We discussed this matter from the start. We do run a tracker, but only for Content Distribution purposes. Running an open tracker is not a trivial task, it requires major technical and financial backing. Thus, running such a tracker is currently not an option for us.
TorrentFreak: Mininova is a registered company in the Netherlands. Has 2007 been a good year for the company profit wise?
Niek: I would say this was a pretty nice year. We just bought a Palm Tree island in Dubai (we chose the bottom right leaf, for those who’re interested). I also received my second Bugatti Veyron last week (bonus for the increased Q4 numbers). Oh, and don’t forget to watch MTV Cribs next month to see all this stuff. /sarcasm
TorrentFreak: About the future, where do you see Mininova in 10 years from now? do you think people will still download .torrent files by then?
Niek: Predicting the future is probably one of the most dangerous things to do (remember Bill gates and his 640K?). One thing is for sure: P2P won’t go away anytime soon. We will probably share more files than ever in 10 years, either using an improved version of BitTorrent or a different P2P protocol. We hope that Mininova will stay on top of developments.
TorrentFreak: Thanks for taking the time to talk to TorrentFreak, even though you skipped some questions ;) Is there anything you like to add?
Niek: Thanks to all our users! Especially the 4 billion downloads wouldn’t never been possibly without your support and the great help of our moderating team. TorrentFreak, thank you for your time.
Previously: RIAA Reminds Me of The Mafia, says Musician
Next: Anti-Virus Company Says PeerGuardian is Malware
97 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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@24 - Native American… that’s Indian as in “Cowboys and”… you don’t really want to go there.
What were the questions they skipped?
;)
lol, calm the feck down! its only sarcasm!
ps good interview
pps americans suck
[quote comment="296646"]Is there genuinely a need for sarcasm in in the Torrent news?[/quote]
maybe, when its a fucking interview?
[quote comment="296662"]If you want to get busted, Use public Torrent sites LoL
Like: Mininoga - TBP - torrentspy etc
Use private and invite only sites only ![/quote]
Because private sites are invincible! Oh btw that was sarcasm for everyone that didn’t catch it.
@24
Of course Benjamin Franklin and many other great minds were pompous americans too who didnt invent anything, Right? No. I dont care what you think about the United States but before you say something make sure you dont make yourself look like a freaking retard.
I really hope your from France.
@24
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_inventions
what’s with all this ARGUING?
you must all be AMERICANS
It’s pathetic how we’ve digressed from the main topic to whether or not Americans are stupid. Fact: That’s a stereotype. From the comments it seems like extremely arrogant and ignorant Americans are mostly doing the talking. If one weren’t ignorant they’d recognize the faults America has caused and continues to do, it doesn’t mean that we hate America or Americans but we must recognize these facts rather than try to numb ourselves with lies propagated by the MSM.
Not an American, infact in Sweden and enjoying RIAA free downloading… meaning that even if they are reading this post and have my ip…. KISS MY ASS RIAA PIGS COZ YOU CANT DO SHIT… that said, am getting pretty tired of US bashing and _silly_ remarks like the US has not invented anything.
P2P is about sharing and caring… divided, we fall.
im from US, taking seedmonster.com private with tracker in 30days, Theres your contribution!
I’m not going to get deep into a trivial argument. The bottom line is, we are the most powerfull country in the world, both economically and militarily. We do what we wish, we exert our influence where we see fit, and we don’t give a fuck about what the rest of the world thinks.
This is why America is disliked and/or hated by many and I really could care less.
[quote comment="296648"]Yeah, America rules.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
But Australia is the best. Wish I could live there someday.[/quote]
for reals
I love Mininova, but why does their search engine not recognize separate words? I tried to search for the movie Once, and I got so many hits for cONCErt and beyONCE that I gave up…
I thunk the reason people have such a problem with America is because America pats America’s own back too much. I’m Canadian and we have a huge chip on our shoulder, too, tho’ it’s different than the American chip.
You just don’t hear smaller countries get all up in the grill of other nations, like you hear America do, ALL THE TIME. If you American Citizens who so proudly don’t want to hear other nations citizens point out that your country is a dick, regardless of who invented what, then rein in your OUT OF CONTROL military industrial media monster of a government. OR… stfu.
I am American. I hate our government, but I don’t hate our people. I feel that the American government and it’s actions should not be thought to represent our people as a whole. There is a reason the approval rating of our president is in the toilet. We are seperate from what our government does, and hopefully with the upcoming election, our people can finally be proud of our president and government and its actions. Please don’t take the actions of the American government as the model for the mindset of American citizens. We aren’t dumb, arrogent, etc, any more than any other civilization. All nations have their stereotypes, and usually there is only a miniscule amount of truth to them at most. Please be more respectful with your comments towards people of other nations. Lets all get along… and seed.
great job mininova, keep ahead of the game
i’m glad this turned into a high school social studies class discussion.
You know, after reading that article, I was going to post a message about how gullible RIAA/MPAA members might might believe the section where he brags about how much money they’re making. I was shocked to see that there were readers gullible enough to believe it as well.
Did you not see the “/sarcasm” at the end of that paragraph? Do you not know what sarcasm is? When did the average IQ drop into the single digits?
As for the America bashing; I’m American and I love my country, but hate the current government. That said, anyone who wants to bash America for our lack of significant accomplishments is free to do so, provided that your country has landed a man on the moon.
@40 Eric
Wise words. I’m from Europe have never been in the US, but I too think that people should learn to distinguish a contry’s people from it’s government and companies.
In my opinion the American people seems as mixed as any other country, but the American gov. and the companies that the gov. is a slave to are among the worst in the world.
A lot of Americans like to insult china for example. Their gov. could easily be as “evil” as the American, but at least they are not pussies that dance to private companies whip, and then go out and play the worlds police man to counter their low self esteem.
I dunno.. All this bitching isn’t doing anyone any good..
Maybe i’m getting too old and been doing this shit for too long.
It’s just not the same anymore. What happened to the community we all once had? It’s about sharing, saying thanks for the files, requesting and sharing again.
Like someone mentioned earlier, divided we fall. This is what the RIAA and the like want.
Like I said, maybe i’ve been doing this all too long. Time for filesharing retirement :)
@45 dont take any of these comments to heart it is not a reflection on the torrent community as a whole.
the way i see it is
indexers are like lechers
and trackers are like seeders
all the indexer does is steal other sites .torrent links with some bot which uses up the bandwidth of these other sites trawling every page (leeching.)its great that its all in one place but the site that provided the original content does’nt get any page views, visits, users, which means they get no money for banners and stuff, tbh mininova is a cancer in the BT world.
‘off topic’
the main issue i have with US is there aggressive nature, just look @ “cops” very aggressive policing, and also their aggressive ‘war on oil’ oops i mean war on terror?
What ever happened to torrentspy? I was active user once. I didnt visited it for mounts now. Is it dead or dying or what?
As for mininova, you are THE site for me now. Maybe if you guys could just make comments section on the bottom of the torrent page instead of taking me to the new window.
O well… lots of luck guys :)
“Why do I always see this arrogant comments meant to demean Americans on every p2p board I come accross? The people of this country have accomplished more then whatever country you live in ever will.”
Because most Americans are American Idol/Gladiator watching mindless drones who delight in shoving hamburgers made from diseased and sick cattle into their obese orifices and showering their tummy with High Fructose Corn Syrup while being lulled into the lie that there are only 2 parties to choose from, the red/blue politics game of corporate cocksuck?
Watch some videos from a truly great American: Bill Hicks, and squeegee your third fuckin eye, you lazy, stupid cattle.
Fuck patriotism.
One world, one people, with only governments and corporations to divide us.
Don’t help them by being a slave to their tactics. Wake the fuck up.
An easy, legal way to search mininova and pirate bay - http://www.PiraBoogle.com
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