Thingiverse is to be acquired by MyMiniFactory.Ultimaker has sold long-neglected Thingiverse to UK-based MyMiniFactory, which also owns former Ultimaker platform YouMagine, resin/character-driven platform and slicer SoulCrafted, as well as Scan the World. According to Thingiverse CEO Romain Kidd, “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.” Building on that idea, Thingiverse CMO Rees Calder stated, “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.” Arys Andreou, the new CTO for Thingiverse, opined that, “I hope to help Thingiverse become an invaluable, dependable and trusted tool for seasoned engineers and beginner tinkerers alike.” The new team will have to do quite a turnaround, taking the melting 2 million file platform onto a more positive trajectory.
A lot of glitches will have to be ironed out, and the platform will have to be relevant again.The team did something similar in 2024, taking YouMagine and making it an RC-specific platform with an audience.Meanwhile, the 8 million registered accounts of Thingiverse could be reactivated if the team really put a lot of oomph into growing the once-dominant platform.
MyMiniFactory has managed to convince a million people to part with over a $100 million to support creators, so more of the same could really reinvigorate Thingiverse.The team says that it was “founded under the ethos that creators deserve to be valued.Not as content generators.
Not as data points.As skilled individuals whose work has worth.” Furthermore, the company promises that “the open sharing ethos of Thingiverse stays.MyMiniFactory will introduce sustainable business models for creators with an emphasis on SoulCrafted content rather than AI and non-printable content.” In some of the most human and resonant press release info that I’ve been given, they say that, “We know you’ve been let down before.
We know trust is earned, not announced.So, we’re not asking you to just take our word for it.We’re asking you to help us shape what comes next, shape the future of Thingiverse.” Beautiful, super well done with tone and content. What will this mean? The new team will host a live Q&A on February 17th at 5 pm UTC.
Sign up for that here.If you can’t make that, you can leave feedback here.I, for one, am super excited by this move.
Thingiverse was painfully neglected by Stratasys.I’m enthused that there’s a CEO, CMO, and CTO now; that’s more people than Stratasys has working on it.After this, Ultimaker never managed to make the platform work well or to reverse the decline. Thingiverse was once a site of essential importance to 3D printing.
Its waning path was sad to see.Some errors persisted for months, and no attention was paid to this asset at all.And it could have been such an important business.
Bambu has shown that you can make a flourishing business out of sponsoring makers.MyMiniFactory has shown that, for the long term, this can be a good business for creators and users alike.It’s a mystery why a small team didn’t just turn this around and make it doable again to download files from it.
Thigiverse´s abandonment and dwindling were due to a lack of will, vision, and execution.A decade-long slide into irrelevance was the result of neglect, abandonment, and lack of resolve.This was unnecessary, and the community and 3D printing market as a whole deserved better.
It was also financially stupid.Done right, Thingiverse could have been one of the largest businesses in 3D printing.I’m not saying that it would have been easy, but given the immense installed base and huge number of files, it could have been doable.
Clouds over the Cloud So many years later, it’s going to be hard to restart Thingiverse.They should have a burial ceremony and then resurrect it.The team seems well-intentioned and knows how to build platforms and communities well.
But now Printables is a great community with good software.Makerworld as well works incredibly well.It’s very easy to print with one click from these platforms.
I’m not sure I even remember my username for Thingiverse.The team will have to work hard, therefore, to turn it around.I think that some people will help.
There are people who have given thousands of hours to that platform and still have extensive files on it.The big question also has to be AI.AI tools are getting better, and there is a lot of 3D printing AI slop about.
AI tools could overshadow or become a new path for many to file.At the same time, it’s easy for AI slop to be added to platforms.MyMiniFactory wants to empower true creation and true designs.
Perhaps if it makes it easier to make many things parametric, while developing more mechanisms to better test design quality, it can win out.Tweaking mechanisms to support designers will also help.More Kickstarter-like projects that could be inspiring could be one way to do it.
Groups of designers could solve real-world issues like water filtration, solar panel holders, printable food storage, tools, and more if incentivized correctly.Now there’s a lot of attention going to useful things.But, critical things, things to help people in developing countries, lab equipment, teaching supplies, and more, can be 3D printed very cheaply.
MiniFactory could make a new future for the site by positioning it to tackle these immense challenges.Maybe you’d pay to get a cool lunchbox design made, which could also help someone store food, for example.In this way, Thingiverse could become a problem-solving platform that, through human ingenuity, collectively solves humanity’s problems.
Or the site could capture the huge volume of CNC, laser cut, and injection molding files that will come out of other desktop devices.Either way there are a lot of options and paths out there, let’s all wish the team luck in finding Thingiverse a fitting future.Images courtesy of Thingiverse Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.
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