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Comment by notadoc | Hacker News Reader

Isn't Minecraft still popular? Why shut it down rather than let it sit there or sell it?

I'd think with the increasing popularity of Netflix that'd still be popular as well.

It was a site about Minecraft mods which don't garner as much traffic as they once did. I did consider selling it at one point and even spoke with a web broker. The biggest concerns were trademark stuff especially now that Microsoft owns it. Letting a content site just "sit there" is the same thing as letting it die, which is what I pretty much did. You gotta keep on generating good content if you want to make $$ at it. In addition to that, the content you do generate needs to be able to garner enough traffic to make that $$.

Yes, Netflix is still popular but they were not pushing as many display ads as they once were when the site was doing its best. Plus the TV show line up sucked after that summer and nothing really was sticking. After taking into account the cost to hire and manage contract TV show writers, cost to advertise it, hosting, etc. the revenue it was making wasn't enough for it to be worthwhile. Especially considering our SaaS products and Advertising Agency were growing.

I run a modding site and are always interested in small sites even if dead. Reach out if interested it might fit what we are looking for

I think it's save to assume they considered the numbers and concluded it wasn't worth it

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