Podmailing Launches in the U.S. – BitTorrent and Amazon Web Services Email File Sharing

Podmailing is announcing their U.S. launch this week after a successful trial in Europe. The Podmailing service enables users to send and receive any size file by email. The sender must download the Podmailing client, the recipient can download the file via a Web browser or BitTorrent client. The client software is available for Windows and Mac.

Janko Roettgers has an indepth review of Podmailing. The Podmailing system also uses Amazon Web Services, including EC2 virtual servers, for the backend and for what appears to be some storage functionality. The business model is a freemium model – Founder Louis Choquel says that their free offering is stronger than their nearest competitor, Pando.

Roettgers notes that they have had a little more that 40,000 registered users that used Podmailing to send files and up to 30,000 peers downloading files using their trackers. Overall, Podmailing has seen more than 110,000 file packages sent.

Choquel also explains that the source code is available for developers who want to build on top of Podmailing. He is also looking at other extensions of the software in the near future.

To be honest, I am not crazy about private files between you and I being shared on an open BitTorrent network. While I get that there’s security with the files, it just isn’t that exciting to hear that my files will be on a shared network. The software is very easy to use but the Podmailing seems like a tool focused at the tech audience. I can’t imagine an average Internet user understanding what BitTorrent is nor wanting to understand it.

Other services in this area include UK-based DropSend and NY-based Drop.io. Choquel has created a video pitch about Podmailing and I’ve embedded it below.