Shoebox photo storage website is shutting down

Shoebox, a free photo storage service in operation in 2012, told users yesterday it will shut down effective May 22nd. No reason was given for the secession of service, but given the rise in free storage services from Google Photos, Shutterfly, Amazon Photos and others, it’s possible those players were just too big to overcome. Shoebox was one of the first services to offer background photo upload to a website. Shoebox uploaded web-resolution backups for free, with full-resolution requiring a paid membership.

The Toronto, Canada, company’s funding included $1.2 million in venture capital from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) Venture Capital in 2014. At the time, company professed: “Shoebox’s strength is in getting the pictures from storage and sources that aren’t connected, to the web, as quickly and painlessly as possible.”

Shoebox isn’t the first photo storage service to call it a day. Dropbox discontinued its Carousel photo organizer app, which at the time of Shoebox’s launch was its primary competitor.