Easily the biggest news of the day: MyMiniFactory has acquired Thingiverse!
Thingiverse is the oldest and largest (by model count) of the dedicated 3D printable model sites. It was first created by MakerBot as a way to encourage usage of their then-new desktop 3D printer, the CupCake. As the first site in the space, it attracted vast numbers of uploads and downloads.
Later, MakerBot was acquired by Stratasys, and Thingiverse went along with it. Stratasys changed MakerBot’s mission to a more commercial trajectory, and Thingiverse was left in an awkward position. It was basically left alone for many years until MakerBot was absorbed into the new UltiMaker. UltiMaker did some improvements to Thingiverse, but the site never regained its original glory.
Now that all could change, as MyMiniFactory has officially acquired Thingiverse. MyMiniFactory launched not long after Thingiverse but has always been quite a bit smaller in terms of 3D models. However, while Thingiverse languished over the years, MyMiniFactory has slowly been evolving into a powerhouse for 3D models, paying out over US$100M to their participating creators.
The company refocused on addressing the needs of model designers and reshaped their site into what it is today. Since then, they’ve merged or acquired several other related services, including YouMagine, Ultimaker’s original response to Thingiverse. Now both are under the same umbrella.
Thingiverse will operate in a manner similar to other MyMiniFactory acquisitions: as a separate line of business. The new Thingiverse will be run by CEO Romain Kidd, who just happened to be one of the folks that ran MyMiniFactory in its early days. Rees Calder of MyMiniFactory will be Chief Marketing Officer.
What will change with this acquisition? Plenty, it seems. MyMiniFactory’s success blueprint includes a focus on human-made designs, human curation, and creator sustainability. Those are aspects that have really never been present in Thingiverse.
Kidd explained:
“This is about what kind of internet and future we want. AI-generated content is everywhere now and is a threat to the livelihoods of real creators everywhere. We know from launching SoulCrafted that there’s real demand for spaces where human work is valued and protected. Thingiverse will be one of those spaces.”
Calder added:
“We’re not promising something new. We’re applying what already works. Treat creators as partners. Give them real tools to build sustainable audiences and income. That’s it.”
Thingiverse, which holds something around 7M+ 3D models, has quite a bit of uncurated material, and the new management will have to deal with that — it doesn’t fit into their new strategy.
One particular task ahead is to remove AI-generated content entirely. This doesn’t fit into their strategy, and they intend on removing it. I asked Calder how they would do this:
“On the AI front – yes, we will be implementing detection systems for AI-generated content. We are currently evaluating several approaches including metadata analysis, community reporting tools, and automated detection. For existing content, we will be removing AI-generated content, and refining from there based on community feedback.”
This is a monumental change to the desktop 3D printing model world, and as such, there will be plenty of questions. Thousands of creators have uploaded content to Thingiverse over the years, and they will have some questions about what’s happening next. To address their concerns, the MyMiniFactory team has organized a Q& A session for anyone to join on February 17th at 17:00 UTC (12:00 ET), and you can register here. MyMiniFactory is still developing the future roadmap for Thingiverse, and they intend on using feedback to help direct things, so consider putting your two cents in.
I’m feeling a bit relieved about this. Ever since Stratasys took over MakerBot, it has been very unclear what might happen to Thingiverse. I feared that one of the successive owners might simply turn it off as it really didn’t fit into any of their business plans.
Now we know the answer: MyMiniFactory has rescued Thingiverse.
Via MyMiniFactory
