Amazon.com Inc. has notified customers that its Amazon Drive cloud-based file storage storage will be shut down at the end of next year.

The move was announced to users early today.

Amazon Drive launched in 2011, about a year before Google LLC introduced Google Drive. The service enables every customer of the online retail and cloud computing giant to access 5 gigabytes of free storage capacity. For users with more advanced requirements, Amazon Drive offers a set of paid plans with additional capacity. 

Amazon intends to shut down the service in phases. As a first step, the company has synced Amazon Drive users’ photos and videos to Amazon Photos, another file storage service that it provides for consumers. The move will ensure that users’ files remain accessible after Amazon Drive is discontinued.

On Jan. 31, 2023, Amazon will stop offering the ability to upload new files to Amazon Drive via the service’s website. However, users will retain the ability to access existing files until Dec. 31, 2023. On that day, the company plans to take the service offline.

Amazon will continue operating Amazon Photos, the service to which it has synced Amazon Drive users’ photos and videos, after the latter offering is discontinued. Amazon Photos is available at no charge as part of the company’s Prime membership program. For customers without a Prime subscription, the service offers 5 gigabytes of free cloud storage capacity.

“We are taking the opportunity to more fully focus our efforts on Amazon Photos to provide customers a dedicated solution for photos and video storage,” Amazon stated.

Amazon Photos is one of several products that the company provides for no charge as part of its Prime membership program. The membership program also includes Prime Reading, a service that offers free access to a rotating catalog of e-books. Additionally, subscribers have access to a rotating catalog of free video games.

Prime is an important component of Amazon’s e-commerce strategy. The membership program surpassed 200 million subscribers in 2021, only two years after reaching the 100 million subscriber mark. During this year’s Prime Day, an annual event during which Amazon offers product discounts, more than 300 million items were sold on the company’s e-commerce marketplace.

Amazon regularly expands Prime with new features to continue its momentum. One of the latest additions is free one-year access to Grubhub+, a subscription service that waives delivery fees across many purchases made via the Grubhub food delivery platform. The service became available to Prime members as a result of a partnership with Grubhub parent company Just Eat Takeaway.com NV that Amazon announced earlier this month.

Photo: Amazon