The Swiss host Infomaniak is changing its offer to offer up to 35 GB of free storage space, hosted in Europe.
A year after offering a secure email address to European citizens, Infomaniak is back with a new formula. The Swiss host, which defines itself as “an independent alternative to the web giants in Europe”, launches Etik. This new service comes in the form of an ecosystem “ad-free and privacy-friendly” to manage their digital life. It allows you to store your documents, photos or even manage your emails, appointments and videoconferences from a sovereign cloud.
While the subject challenges in Europe, Informaniak offers 15 GB to store, share and collaborate online via kDrive and 20 GB for its email address (@ik.me, @etik.com or @ikmail.com). In total, the user is entitled to 35 GB of free storage space hosted in Switzerland. The company, subject to the GDPR, specifies in passing that it uses exclusively renewable energy and offsets its CO2 emissions.
This formula “which respects privacy and ecology” is dreamed of as an alternative to solutions from Google (Gmail and Drive) or Microsoft (Outlook and OneDrive). It is accessible to individuals at Etik.com and represents a great step forward for the Swiss firm. Last year, Infomaniak offered a free email address with only 3 GB of kDrive storage.
Infomaniak vs. Google and Microsoft
With its Ethical Cloud (Etik), Infomaniak hopes to seduce in Europe against the digital giants. For comparison, 15 GB is available from Google for Google Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. For its part, Microsoft claims 5 GB of free storage when registering for OneDrive. Less visible than these two giants, Yahoo Mail still stands out with its 1 TB of storage space for the mailbox.
But if it’s free, is that I’m the product?
Well known to Internet users, the formula “if it’s free, you are the product” (and its variants) invites mistrust. Indeed, the majority of messaging and cloud services on the market opt for free solutions to recover users. The method has helped the GAFAMs to become behemoths, arousing numerous criticisms.
On the Infomaniak side, we are trying to play on transparency to stand out. Director of Communications, Thomas Jacobsen explains “The goal, we don’t hide it, is to promote our brand image and our commitments “. And to add: Our problem is that we must have a critical size to accelerate the development of our own technologies to guarantee our customers that their data is processed by software that respects privacy and whose legal jurisdiction is based in Switzerland in the compliance with the GDPR ».
The host hopes to attract many users and also relies on paid offers. They are offered from 4.99 euros per month. The Swiss company is posting a growth in turnover of 32.35% in Europe. It indicates that it went from 43 to 185 employees between 2015 and the end of 2021. Infomaniak’s CEO, Marc Oehler, adds: “We now have the ability to offer powerful and independent alternatives to Web giants that are improving month by month based on our roadmap and feedback from our users”.
