The big picture: Zippyshare was one of the most popular file-sharing websites in the early years of the twentieth century, before streaming services like Netflix and Spotify reduced its relevance. While similar sites like Megaupload bit the dust long ago, Zippyshare trudged on gallantly for nearly two decades. But like all good things, its 17-year run is finally coming to an end.

File-sharing site Zippyshare has announced it will shut down at the end of this month. The site started in 2006 and quickly gained popularity among users as one of the preeminent cyber-locker services in the world. However, it also attracted scrutiny from law enforcement agencies for allegedly facilitating online piracy.

In an official blog post announcing the impending shutdown, the site owners said that the falling revenues and increasing maintenance costs have made Zippyshare's current business model unsustainable. They also mentioned several reasons for the planned shutdown, including diminishing usage over the years, thanks largely to competition from the major cloud storage services.

The blog post also mentioned the increasing use of ad-blockers, which has become a problem for websites everywhere. According to the owners, all sorts of ad-blocking technology, including browser extensions and third-party DNS services, have made it impossible for the company to sustain its ad-based revenue model.

The final reason offered for the shutdown is the cost of electricity, which has risen 2.5 times over the past year, making it too expensive to run the servers. In addition, the owners say there are a number of other, smaller reasons as well, all of which combined to make it impossible for the site to be run profitably anymore.

Users who have important files on Zippyshare have a few more days until the end of this month to download them before the site goes offline for good. That means movie buffs, music aficionados and gamers who have been wanting to get their hands on a particular title should get that done ASAP, as they don't have a lot of time on their hands.

Even now, at the end of its controversial 17-year run, Zippyshare reportedly gets around 45 million visits every month, making it one of the top 1,000 sites today in terms of visitors. According to TorrentFreak, the site has received over 14.5 million requests during its lifetime for taking down URLs that contained copyrighted material.

The fall of Zippyshare is one more blow to older internet users who still remember it as one of the best free file-sharing sites online, with no download limits or annoying timers, unlike many other similar services. It also typically offered faster download speeds than other file-hosting services, making it highly popular among users everywhere.