Livedrive research reveals the files that we least want to lose

Jan. 18, 2011 - PRLog -- Livedrive - an award winning cloud storage company with over half a million users - have carried out unique research to find out which files people back up most commonly using their unlimited online backup service.  The research - which involved just over 10,000 volunteers from Livedrive’s customer base - analysed the file types that each user backed up over the course of a month.  The results reveal the types of files that we hold most precious, and that we least want to lose.

The most common files backed up to Livedrive by users were image files - making an amazing 40% of all files uploaded during the period.  This percentage is far higher than any other file type - with the nearest competitor, music files, hitting just 8% of all uploads.  Within images, JPGs are by far the most common, making up 84% of the images uploaded, demonstrating that users are far more concerned about protecting their precious holiday snaps and family memories than anything else.

The fact that music comes in second place is no surprise – a recent ICM poll values the average user’s music collection at £1,500 UK Pounds, or about $2,400 US Dollars.  Within music 60% of files are MP3s and 29% are M4As – showing that although Apple dominates the digital music download business, the majority of songs that users store either predate iTunes, are sourced elsewhere, or are ripped from their own CDs.

Behind photos and music, come documents – Word documents are third making up 6% of uploads, PDFs are fourth at 3%, and at joint fifth are plain text files and Excel spreadsheets at 2%.   Like photos, documents are often irreplaceable, so it’s vital that users back them up.

The first video format to appear on the list – AVI – comes in at position 52, behind countless software and system file types.  Only 0.4% of all files uploaded during the month were video files.  Although Livedrive backs up a large amount of video data – and even lets users stream their videos straight to their iPhone and iPad – it seems that users store far fewer of these types of media than any other, probably because they use so much hard drive space.

Andrew Michael, CEO and founder of Livedrive.com, said about today’s findings: “We’re really grateful to the volunteers that took part in this research as I think they’ve provided us with some unique insight into the way consumers use online backup, and also the way they use their computer.   These results can help us refine Livedrive to make it even better suited to the needs of its users.”

Livedrive Backup makes it easy to protect all your files by backing them up online.  It costs just £3.95 per month for unlimited online storage, and is available from www.livedrive.com.

About Livedrive

Livedrive is creating technology that will revolutionise the way people store and access their files, photos, music, videos and other digital content. Livedrive is backed by Andrew Michael, founder of Fasthosts Internet Limited, the UK's largest and most successful Internet hosting company, which he sold in 2006 for over $120m. For more information, go to www.livedrive.com and see press resources at www.livedrive.com/press

Media Contact

Jamie Brown
Email: jamie.brown@livedrive.com

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