My DPreview Closure Theory

[Scottelly]

IMDB is the owner of DP Review, but Amazon owns IMDB. My wild guess is Amazon was unaware of IMDB's intent, and when they found out about the impending closure they said something like, "Woah, you're doing WHAT?!?" Then they quickly put a temporary hold on the closure, while they make an assessment of the situation.

I'm thinking the management at IMDB probably has very little interest in DPreview, and since DPreview may have recently been "losing" money, they decided that keeping it running is just not "in their budget."

. . . or it could be a "politics" thing, with Amazon squeezing IMDB, and trying to get IMDB management to make the company produce more profit, and IMDB consequently deciding that one way to produce more profit would be to cut costs, and shut down anything that is costing a lot of money to run, but not bringing in enough revenue to completely offset the cost of running it, but Amazon gets lots of "free" advertising with this website, and they see the move as something that will hurt Amazon. IMDB probably looks at it as though their hand is being forced though. I wouldn't be surprised if the CEO of IMDB actually used this closure as a strategic move in the political game of chess that is constantly happening in high places among Amazon subsidiaries.

Well, that's my wild theory, based on the way this "shut down" appears to be getting handled, and the fact that I read about DPreview being owned by IMDB, rather than being a direct subsidiary of Amazon.

 

[SandyF]

I think that the lack of photo info and discussion on DPReview would/will hurt Amazon in the long-term, through softer sales of cameras and related gear on Amazon.

 

[Scottelly]

I think that the lack of photo info and discussion on DPReview would/will hurt Amazon in the long-term, through softer sales of cameras and related gear on Amazon.

I agree. I bet a lot of people have gone to Amazon from here to look for spare batteries, camera bags, and tripods, let alone lenses, flashes, and cameras. I have no doubt the ill will created by shuttering this website would significantly reduce photography-related sales on Amazon.com. (I mean it's not as if there aren't alternative sites to order through, such as Adorama, Best Buy, that big auction site, etc.)

 

[Iain G Foulds]

… Scott: That is a very good theory.

 

[DavidMillier]

Is this your delayed April 1 theory?

DPR remains open temporarily while the staff complete the archiving promise they made. Once that's done, it'll convert to read only. It's in the update splashed across the top of the site.

 

[joe173]

I think with these big corporations, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing, and, frankly, does not care. That is my guess. WIll they lose money on camera equipment and sales? Sure. Does anyone care? Naw. It's too little to bother with. Chump change to Amazon. Someone in a board room took a five-second look and asked, what's DPReview? Before the answer came, said 'Get rid of it.' And that was that. It is like the guy who got rejected by the girl. Two weeks later reject guy is still trying to figure out why and imagining elaborate reasons. (Answer she didn't like him-he wasn't "hot"-that's it). Meanwhile, the girl has gone on 5 more dates and doesn't even remember said guy anymore.

 

[Scottelly]

I think with these big corporations, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing, and, frankly, does not care. That is my guess. WIll they lose money on camera equipment and sales? Sure. Does anyone care? Naw. It's too little to bother with. Chump change to Amazon. Someone in a board room took a five-second look and asked, what's DPReview? Before the answer came, said 'Get rid of it.' And that was that. It is like the guy who got rejected by the girl. Two weeks later reject guy is still trying to figure out why and imagining elaborate reasons. (Answer she didn't like him-he wasn't "hot"-that's it). Meanwhile, the girl has gone on 5 more dates and doesn't even remember said guy anymore.

Well put. Your reply made me laugh.

 

[saltydogstudios]

IMDB is the owner of DP Review, but Amazon owns IMDB. My wild guess is Amazon was unaware of IMDB's intent, and when they found out about the impending closure they said something like, "Woah, you're doing WHAT?!?" Then they quickly put a temporary hold on the closure, while they make an assessment of the situation.

I'm thinking the management at IMDB probably has very little interest in DPreview, and since DPreview may have recently been "losing" money, they decided that keeping it running is just not "in their budget."

. . . or it could be a "politics" thing, with Amazon squeezing IMDB, and trying to get IMDB management to make the company produce more profit, and IMDB consequently deciding that one way to produce more profit would be to cut costs, and shut down anything that is costing a lot of money to run, but not bringing in enough revenue to completely offset the cost of running it, but Amazon gets lots of "free" advertising with this website, and they see the move as something that will hurt Amazon. IMDB probably looks at it as though their hand is being forced though. I wouldn't be surprised if the CEO of IMDB actually used this closure as a strategic move in the political game of chess that is constantly happening in high places among Amazon subsidiaries.

Well, that's my wild theory, based on the way this "shut down" appears to be getting handled, and the fact that I read about DPreview being owned by IMDB, rather than being a direct subsidiary of Amazon.

IMDb is an important part of Amazon's strategy.

IMDb isn't just "dpreview for movies" - they have a free streaming service upon which Amazon can sell ads.

If anything maybe it's the other way around. Amazon said "get rid of that camera site, revenues from it are a rounding error" and IMDb said "nah keep it, we're gonna make you tons of money from streaming that you won't mind the expense of dpreview."

Or - more realistically, the threats of boycots made Amazon realize that while the dpreview website itself may not be a large revenue driver, it drives significant traffic to Amazon's electronics pages.

--
"no one should have a camera that can't play Candy Crush Saga."
Ye olde instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sodiumstudio/ (will probably still be around after April 10th)
Apparently there's an expat Facebook group? https://www.facebook.com/groups/575054431245443

 

[Scottelly]

IMDB is the owner of DP Review, but Amazon owns IMDB. My wild guess is Amazon was unaware of IMDB's intent, and when they found out about the impending closure they said something like, "Woah, you're doing WHAT?!?" Then they quickly put a temporary hold on the closure, while they make an assessment of the situation.

I'm thinking the management at IMDB probably has very little interest in DPreview, and since DPreview may have recently been "losing" money, they decided that keeping it running is just not "in their budget."

. . . or it could be a "politics" thing, with Amazon squeezing IMDB, and trying to get IMDB management to make the company produce more profit, and IMDB consequently deciding that one way to produce more profit would be to cut costs, and shut down anything that is costing a lot of money to run, but not bringing in enough revenue to completely offset the cost of running it, but Amazon gets lots of "free" advertising with this website, and they see the move as something that will hurt Amazon. IMDB probably looks at it as though their hand is being forced though. I wouldn't be surprised if the CEO of IMDB actually used this closure as a strategic move in the political game of chess that is constantly happening in high places among Amazon subsidiaries.

Well, that's my wild theory, based on the way this "shut down" appears to be getting handled, and the fact that I read about DPreview being owned by IMDB, rather than being a direct subsidiary of Amazon.

IMDb is an important part of Amazon's strategy.

IMDb isn't just "dpreview for movies" - they have a free streaming service upon which Amazon can sell ads.

If anything maybe it's the other way around. Amazon said "get rid of that camera site, revenues from it are a rounding error" and IMDb said "nah keep it, we're gonna make you tons of money from streaming that you won't mind the expense of dpreview."

Or - more realistically, the threats of boycots made Amazon realize that while the dpreview website itself may not be a large revenue driver, it drives significant traffic to Amazon's electronics pages.

Maybe.

I think the threats of boycots are a result of the immature way the closure was handled, with less than a month of warning. The "right" way to handle it would have been to slowly allow the site to decline, cutting reviews back to one per month, and then one every two months, then . . . eventually . . . making an announcement that DPreview would be shutting down regular operations early next year, and would be operating on a skeleton crew staff until then, but that the forums would remain in operation until the end of next year. Tailing things off, with plenty of notice, would be the much more responsibke and less shocking way to handle the shut down. I've seen shut downs happen in many ways, and a sudden shut down offends and upsets people . . . especially when it's something like DPreview, which is a leader, an institution of sorts. Imagine if tomorrow Canon announced that they would no longer be making cameras as of the end of next month, and that they were shutting down all operations by the end of the year? There would literally be mayhem in the camera industry, and for good reason.

 

[Iain G Foulds]

… Scott: Exactly. The closure and it’s announcement was the product of moral and ethical Neanderthals.

… But now, even if they announced an official reopening it would be a failure. I suspect that most have happily moved on to better forums. Myself, I am delighted to be at Focal World. Very creative, diverse, and accepting photographers. Gear is almost irrelevant. Feel right at home.

 

[dpreviewblog]

… But now, even if they announced an official reopening it would be a failure. I suspect that most have happily moved on to better forums.

I agree...

Myself, I am delighted to be at Focal World. Very creative, diverse, and accepting photographers. Gear is almost irrelevant. Feel right at home.

I have registered on several forums, including Focal Word. I'll see how it goes from here. Time will tell. For now, I stay mostly on dprforum.com.
On dprevived.com too, but I won't even log in via VPN. The forum administrators were only able to solve the problem with ip-address blocking for a few hours and then access was blocked again.

 

[xpatUSA]

IMDB is the owner of DP Review, but Amazon owns IMDB.

More about that:

IMDb began as a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the Web in 1993. Since 1998, it has been owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.

As of March 2022, the database contained some 10.1 million titles (including television episodes) and 11.5 million person records. Additionally, the site had 83 million registered users. The site's message boards were disabled in February 2017.

https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearc...b&pl=ext-ff&language=english&extVersion=1.3.0

 

[Scottelly]

"The site's message boards were disabled in February 2017."

Hmmm . . .

I wonder why they wouldn't want people to comment. Maybe it was getting too political for them, with a bunch of Trumpsters making their voices heard in the first year of Trump's presidency.

 

[Karl Huber]

"The site's message boards were disabled in February 2017."

Hmmm . . .

I wonder why they wouldn't want people to comment.

Heaven forfend! When you're out to rule the world, the last thing you need is for the masses to be able to communicate with each other.