This month several leading Usenet providers including UseNetServer, Newshosting, NewsDemon, Easynews, Astraweb and Giganews will surpass 1,000 days of binaries.  With three years of binary retention likely to come later this year.  A huge achievement considering that in September of 2008 the high mark was 240 days.  Two years prior the highest retention was 90 days.

Fortunately storage prices continue to decrease.  Then again the average newsgroup feed size has exploded.  Increasing from 3 TB a day in 2006 up to 8.2 TB a day last month (source: NewsDemon).  The continued growth of the Usenet feed makes the 1,000 day achievement even more impressive.

A few will get to the end of this post and wonder what binary retention means.  In simple terms it’s the number of days binary newsgroup posts are held on a provider’s news server before they drop off.  Meaning that 1,000 days (2.75 years) of binary content will be accessible to download.  Stay tuned to Newsgroup Reviews for future binary retention stats as the numbers are growing daily.  We also keep up with the latest Usenet deals, free newsgroup trials, newsreader downloads and helpful guides.

Earlier today UseNetServer, Newshosting and Easynews announced retention increases.  The number is very notable.  As all three Usenet providers are now at 972 days of binary retention and growing.  Why is the 972 number notable?  Because it’s one day higher than Astraweb who is currently at 971 days.  It is also only 8 days behind Giganews who is at 980 days.  UseNetServer and Newshosting both offer $10 unlimited accounts versus the $25-$35 for Giganews.  Given the difference in price and latest retention updates we expect Newshosting and UseNetServer will be home to a lot of new members in the months to come.

Astraweb is also nearing at 720 days of binary retention.  Other Usenet providers including NewsDemon and UseNetServer are well over a year and a half of binaries.

Giganews also offers 2,600+ days of text retention.  That’s over seven years of text posts.  If you need to find some old school newsgroup posts try Google Groups.

Keep an eye on our Usenet provider section for daily retention updates.

Could it be that the end of the retention war is nearing?  Earlier this week UseNetServer, Newshosting and others hit the 600 day mark for binary retention.  As we mentioned in our UNS post on Monday.  The 600 mark is a great achievement but it didn’t take us by surprise as each service has been growing retention daily for well over a year.  The surprise came when the increases stopped at 600 days.  Could this mark the end of the battle for UseNetServer, Newshosting and others?  Leaving Giganews and Astraweb to decide the final winner.

Maybe or maybe not.  We have no idea but let’s assume for a moment that Giganews, Astraweb and a handful of others are the only remaining Usenet providers increasing retention daily.  What does it mean for customers and the market as a whole?  Will Giganews and Astraweb reap the benefits?  Will sign ups suffer as the retention gap widens or might they actually increase?

If most providers stop at 600 days what does it mean to customers?

It depends on the user.  Some rarely download content over 200 days old and won’t care.  While others want the maximum number of days available and will choose based on retention levels.  Brings the “more than a mouthful” analogy to mind.

How might it effect the market?

A decision to stop at 600 days would leave Giganews, Astraweb and a handful of others to battle it out.  At $11 a month, Astraweb could have a hard time keeping pace with Giganews.  Not only in storage cost but in providing stable, reliabile service.  If they can pull it off though it would be a big win for them

Will Giganews and Astraweb reap the benefits?

Short term we think both services will see an increase in sign ups if the binary retention gap widens.  Over the long term it depends on price and reliability.  Given the price of Giganews accounts along with their history of high retention, we wouldn’t be surprised to see them spool well past the competition.  Along with adding more value through services like VyprVPN.

Will sign ups suffer if the retention gap widens or might they actually increase?

We need the crystal ball for this one.  Initially we suspect sign ups could suffer if the retention gap windens.  In three months if Astraweb is offering relioable service with 700 days of retention for $11 a month they could certainly benefit.  However, if service levels drop or Astraweb increases prices users could start migrating to UseNetServer who offers reliable service for $10 a month.

We’ll just have to wait and see how everything shakes out.  It will certainly make the next few months more interesting.

————

References:

Giganews retention:  631 days
Astraweb retention:  621 days
Newshosting retention: 600 days
UseNetServer retention: 600 days

Giganews – unlimited Usenet + VyprVPN
UseNetServer – $10 unlimited Usenet
Astraweb – $11 unlimited Usenet

How far will retention go and will Giganews start to pull away from the competition again this year?  One thing we do know – if the count continues to increase on a daily basis Giganews could hit 1,000 days of binary retention on May 4th of next year.

Giganews has led the industry in binary retention for years now.  Those of us around awhile remember when getting access to a month of retention was a huge accomplishment.  Now the challenge is finding search sites that can handle 600 days.

Let’s look at some of the Giganews retention milestones along the road to 600 days:
- December 30, 2003 – 30 days binary retention
- August 8, 2005 – 50 days binary retention
- December 7, 2005 – 70 days binary retention
- April 3, 2006 – 1,000 days text retention
- September 19, 2006 – 90 days binary retention
- February 1, 2007 – 100 days binary retention
- April 12, 2007 – 120 days binary retention
- July 12, 2007 – 200 days binary retention
- September 19, 2008 – 240 days binary retention
- May 9, 2009 – 275 days binary retention
- June 3, 2009 – 300 days binary retention
- August 7, 2009 – 365 days binary retention
- September 11, 2009 – 400 days binary retention
- March 30, 2010 – 600 days binary retention
* click any link above to read the associated post on the Giganews blog.

According to the last slide on the Giganews home page they have more excitement coming this year.  For now though to learn more about their Usenet services read our Giganews review or sign up for a 14 day free trial.

————————-

Related Giganews blog post:

Giganews Hits 600 Days of High Quality Retention!

Giganews is proud to announce that we are the first Usenet provider with 600 days of retention! Giganews now provides 600 days of retention with the same high quality and service Giganews customers expect. And we’re still growing! We continue to increase retention to provide Giganews customers with the best Usenet experience available.

Why Giganews Works So Well
We do it because we’re users, too (check out the newsgroup vyprvpn.giganews to see some candid discussions with Giganews employees on VyprVPN). Customers tell us everyday how frustrated they are with other Usenet providers because of poor completion rates and incompletes, especially among older articles. No one wants to deal with that. That’s why we built our service to have the same 100% availability, completeness, and unlimited speed regardless of how old the article is.

How It Works
So how do we do it? It all starts from the bottom up by building and maintaining all the systems for our services ourselves. We don’t outsource or contract this critical aspect of our Usenet service. Instead we’ve built all of our systems ourselves – from the hardware we own, the software we wrote, and the network we built. All this leads to smooth running systems providing the best Usenet experience available today. Plus, with our full time network and datacenter operations staff, we’ve got some very experienced people who make sure the Giganews service is always up and running.

We’ve hit 600 days. 700 here we come.

We’ve covered retention increases in several posts over the last year but it never fails.  Each time we start preparing for the post we reflect on how far retention has come from the early days.

This time around we’d like to have some extra fun.  If each of the Usenet providers listed above continues to grow retention daily here are the resulting dates when they will hit 600, 700, 800, 900 and 1,000 days of retention.

600 Days Binary Retention:
- Giganews – March 30th
- Astraweb – April 10th
- NewsDemon – April 26th
- Newshosting – April 26th
- UseNetServer – April 26th

700 Days Binary Retention:
- Giganews – July 8, 2010
- Astraweb – July 19, 2010
- NewsDemon – August 4, 2010
- Newshosting – August 4, 2010
- UseNetServer – August 4, 2010

800 Days Binary Retention:
- Giganews – October 16, 2010
- Astraweb – October 27, 2010
- NewsDemon – November 12, 2010
- Newshosting – November 12, 2010
- UseNetServer – November 12, 2010

900 Days Binary Retention:
- Giganews – January 24, 2011
- Astraweb – February 4, 2011
- NewsDemon – February 20, 2011
- Newshosting – February 20, 2011
- UseNetServer – February 20, 2011

1,000 Days Binary Retention:
- Giganews – May 4, 2011
- Astraweb – May 15th, 2011
- NewsDemon – May 31, 2011
- Newshosting – May 31, 2011
- UseNetServer – May 31, 2011

The dates are contingent on each newsgroup service continuing to spool retention daily.  Visit our binary retention chart at anytime along the way to see where each provider stands.