Is Thingiverse's Business Model a Bad One?

[RimReaping]

Thingiverse's business model is a really good one IMHO. It allows MakerBot to get plenty of free advertising, while keeping designs open source. So much good comes out of open source design files. I love looking at all the remixes. I've seen so many cool designs evolve to become even cooler.

[Roxy]

Thingiverse's business model is a really good one IMHO. It allows MakerBot to get plenty of free advertising, while keeping designs open source. So much good comes out of open source design files. I love looking at all the remixes. I've seen so many cool designs evolve to become even cooler.

Besides everything you said... Having lots and lots of gadgets that can be found and printed increases the end user demand for 3D-Printers, which obviously MakerBot profits from.

[3dkarma]

Besides everything you said... Having lots and lots of gadgets that can be found and printed increases the end user demand for 3D-Printers, which obviously MakerBot profits from.

This is an extremely important point. There are relatively few people with the skillset needed to create designs. Having a platform that encourages sharing designs means we can get people involved in 3D printing without needing to build that skillset.