{"id":205734,"date":"2025-12-28T22:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T22:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/205734\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T22:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T22:26:10","slug":"why-wetransfers-co-founder-is-building-another-file-transfer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/205734\/","title":{"rendered":"Why WeTransfer’s co-founder is building another file transfer service"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the founders of WeTransfer \u2014 a popular free file-sharing service used by millions worldwide \u2014 is publicly criticizing the company\u2019s new direction. Dutch entrepreneur Nalden<\/a>, who co-founded the platform in 2009, says he\u2019s deeply unhappy with changes made since Bending Spoons<\/a> \u2014 a Milan-based tech firm known for buying and restructuring popular apps \u2014 acquired the service last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cBending Spoons doesn\u2019t really care about people. Even though I get that it is their private equity strategy, I notice that since I left [WeTransfer] in 2019, there were a lot of updates that were basically killing the product, in my point of view,\u201d he told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n

After the acquisition, WeTransfer made unclear changes to how transfer links work and laid off 75% of its staff. This year, the company sparked controversy over employing its users\u2019 content to train AI models and had to backtrack on changes to its terms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Soon after, Nalden says creatives began reaching out to share their frustration with WeTransfer. He realized he wanted to build an alternative to WeTransfer that recaptured the original ethos of the service around simplicity. That service is called Boomerang, and users can transfer files without logging in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do tech companies always make things so complicated? I\u2019ve always struggled with this, and I just wanted to offer another tool that [is entirely focused on the] user experience, its ease of use. It\u2019s the simplicity of sharing something quickly and that just saves time. You don\u2019t need to sign up, you don\u2019t need to verify via email,\u201d Nalden told TechCrunch of the service.<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits: Boomerang<\/p>\n

For casual users, the non-login experience should be sufficient, though it has its limits. 1GB of total storage, and a 1GB file size limit with a seven-day expiration. Creating a free account bumps that to 3GB of total storage and a 3GB file size limit. You\u2019ll also get the upload history, the ability to add and delete files anytime, and custom emojis for file-sharing pages. <\/p>\n

If you want even more, a \u20ac6.99 per-month tier offers 200GB per folder and 500GB total storage with a 5GB file size limit, plus custom covers for folders, password protection, file expiration up to 90 days, and unlimited user invites per folder.<\/p>\n

Techcrunch event<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t|
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"\"Image Credits: boomerang<\/p>\n

Nalden says he won\u2019t offer advertising or collect unnecessary user data. He feels advertising adds complexity, and with Boomerang, he wants to collect as little information as possible. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to offer a tool that works for users. It\u2019s like buying a hammer. You possibly don\u2019t want to buy a fancy hammer, but a hammer that just works,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Boomerang\u2019s interface is intentionally barebones, which Nalden says is a refreshing change from design meant to impress investors. While many companies add more and more AI features, Nalden said he\u2019s using AI to build the product but won\u2019t add AI to user-facing features.<\/p>\n

Boomerang is available on the web, with a dedicated Mac app coming soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the founders of WeTransfer \u2014 a popular free file-sharing service used by millions worldwide \u2014 is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51068,125643,111,139,69,145,125644],"class_list":{"0":"post-205734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-bending-spoons","9":"tag-file-transfer","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-wetransfer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}