Hardware.fr is closing

This is such a shame. I remember hardware.fr being one of the few sites that frequently did some more creative product comparisons.

I wonder if hardware.fr wouldn't thrive had they simply changed their language to english.
That could have given them a much broader audience. Many non-french speaking people kept being directed there for many of their benchmarks anyways, so it's not like they needed a jumpstart in popularity.
Though that would also apply to their german brethren like PCGH.
 
Well, the main reason for stopping it seems a lack of interest... It's simple as that, Marc started this when he was 17... 21 years later, he isn't motivated enough, and, as he said and I find that interesting, the industry is not that interesting anymore (for him anyway).
 
Well, the main reason for stopping it seems a lack of interest... It's simple as that, Marc started this when he was 17... 21 years later, he isn't motivated enough, and, as he said and I find that interesting, the industry is not that interesting anymore (for him anyway).

If that were the main issue, he'd just step back and let Guillaume handle things. The site is running out of money, it's as simple as that.

@ToTTenTranz, there used to be an English version of HFR, called BeHardware.com, it was just the same content translated into English. I think it disappeared a few years ago. I guess it just didn't work out.

It seems to be very hard to sustain an ad-supported hardware website without a substantial amount of daily news. Even the Tech Report couldn't do it without subscriptions, and they have several news stories per day, in English.

It's a shame, because it was always the best hardware website in French (except for x86-secret.com, perhaps) and until now, the only remaining one.
 
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Ad-financed hardware websites is tough business these days it seems, at least for small(er relatively - not that french is particularly small objectively speaking) languages. There are two major swedish PC news and reviews sites, and they both have increasing amounts of hardware vendor sponsored material, either ads made up to look like news, or giveaways, brand-focused questionnaires or hardware donated to be reviewed - with the 'guarantee' that the vendor has no influence over the review itself.

Okay, fine. Maybe that's true. And maybe it isn't. Who knows?

I didn't see all this stuff a few years ago. It kind of feels like the 'free', ad-financed web is sort of shuffling, moving towards its end - to be replaced by what I don't quite know. Subscriptions? Probably not, I doubt that'd be financially viable. Patreon-like sponsor shit, maybe mixed with (a lot of) ads? Hm, maybe.
 
Ad-financed hardware websites is tough business these days it seems, at least for small(er relatively - not that french is particularly small objectively speaking) languages. There are two major swedish PC news and reviews sites, and they both have increasing amounts of hardware vendor sponsored material, either ads made up to look like news, or giveaways, brand-focused questionnaires or hardware donated to be reviewed - with the 'guarantee' that the vendor has no influence over the review itself.

Okay, fine. Maybe that's true. And maybe it isn't. Who knows?

I didn't see all this stuff a few years ago. It kind of feels like the 'free', ad-financed web is sort of shuffling, moving towards its end - to be replaced by what I don't quite know. Subscriptions? Probably not, I doubt that'd be financially viable. Patreon-like sponsor shit, maybe mixed with (a lot of) ads? Hm, maybe.

PCGamesHardware is trying the business model where some of the printed articles are available to read online from their website at a nominal price (not too expensive really), but then even this hybrid model may not be enough or popular with readers.
 
that's a real shame, I've been checking their results for years, they were one of the best sources overall;

with adblock, competition from youtube, and google almost always taking you there or to websites with little content ("gpuboss" and etc) designed for search engine hits it probably became very hard.
 
I never adblock, ever. I've used an autoplay blocker addon for a couple years now maybe, because the scourge of autoplaying video just keeps getting worse, but that's it. Ad banners aren't so bothersome that I feel any need to block them, especially if I by doing so am financially hurting the sites I enjoy.

Instead when I see an ad from a company I feel could pay out a little, I give the ad a sympathy click. :p
 
This such a sad piece of news, Hardware.fr is one of the few remaining decent review sites out there, their tests are always exhaustive and B3D-like.
 
A sad day in light of quality reviews on the web. :( All the best to Marc and the staff!

Carsten,
is the hybrid model where one can buy individual articles from the printed publication helping the business model at PCGamesHardware?
I would like to think readers realise some kind of compromise is needed for good publications to be sustainable, but then readers can be reluctant to spend even small amounts of cash when they feel they can find it free on the internet.

Thanks
 
I cannot (as in: I don't know, but if i knew, i probably wouldn't be allowed to) say how much revenue those single-pay-articles generate.

What you (a general you, not you personally) must not forget when looking at offers like these is that the articles do not transfer themselves magically into the respective content management systems and neither do they prepare themselve for online digestion - someone has to be paid to do it. Additionally, the payment service does have it's fees as well. Then there's taxes and all that stuff. So only when you're big enough and sell a certain number of articles each month, you can actually start making money this way. My guess is: It needs to be a medium-sized three-digit number in order to reach break-even.
 
I cannot (as in: I don't know, but if i knew, i probably wouldn't be allowed to) say how much revenue those single-pay-articles generate.

What you (a general you, not you personally) must not forget when looking at offers like these is that the articles do not transfer themselves magically into the respective content management systems and neither do they prepare themselve for online digestion - someone has to be paid to do it. Additionally, the payment service does have it's fees as well. Then there's taxes and all that stuff. So only when you're big enough and sell a certain number of articles each month, you can actually start making money this way. My guess is: It needs to be a medium-sized three-digit number in order to reach break-even.
Ah ok and thanks, I thought the info may be a bit business sensitive.
Well I hope it works and is supported by readers, the price is pretty good considering everything and an alternative approach to try for a sustainable internet publication model.
 
Pretty sad indeed :(, it might turn into a successful forum only website like Beyond3D... (What there's a Beyond3D front page ?!? ;) )
 
When journalism isn't paid for by the readers, it will get paid for by the industry and cease to be journalism at all. IMHO.

When was journalism ever not paid by the industry?
Even the old paper journals always depended heavily on advertisements from various industries, since the cost to the consumer is practically symbolic.

AFAIK, the only publications that don't depend on ads are some scientific journals where people have to pay a fee per-article. And even those are seemingly starting to fade, with open access journals (where the authors pay a hefty fee per article) becoming more popular.
 
When was journalism ever not paid by the industry?
Even the old paper journals always depended heavily on advertisements from various industries, since the cost to the consumer is practically symbolic.

AFAIK, the only publications that don't depend on ads are some scientific journals where people have to pay a fee per-article. And even those are seemingly starting to fade, with open access journals (where the authors pay a hefty fee per article) becoming more popular.

There's a difference between specific companies in an industry paying an outlet that does reviews on their products compared to a broad spectrum of local, national, and international companies funding a traditional media outlet. Often companies that have no connection to any of the products being reviewed.

That doesn't mean that it is impossible that there isn't something underhanded going on, but it does mean that each individual advertiser has less influence as them pulling their advertising would have a much smaller impact than if they were one of 2-4 advertisers, for instance.

Regards,
SB
 
it's a pity, the site sounds very familiar. Imho, the industry is as interesting as ever, just a bit too biased towads Intel and nVidia, at least the younger generations, they think those are the coolest devices when it comes to this industry.
 
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