In the early 2000s, the number of websites that became a reference on the Internet without being part of a large company was very numerous and, in most cases, it was related to access to content protected by copyright. SeriesLy, Rojadirecta, Pordede and Z-Library are some examples that we have already talked about in Softzone. Except for Z-Library, they were all platforms created in Spain but which had a great impact outside our borders.
Today we are talking about Taringa, a platform that he was born in Argentina as a social network and which, at its best, became the most visited social network in Argentina and the third in all of Latin America. In Spain, it also had a high impact that gradually faded until it practically disappeared when it changed hands.
Origin of Taringa
Taringa.net was born as a social network in 2004, the same year that Facebook was launched, however, this social network, now part of the Meta group, had very slow growth outside of non-English speaking countries, Since they didn’t bother to release Spanish versions until 2008, this allowed Taringa to grow rapidly.
Taringa had a more similar to reddit than to Facebook, where users were in charge of publishing all the content that was available. In this you could find all kinds of content, not only photographs, but also tutorials, news, sports information and even videos. But, what launched this platform to stardom were the download linksboth movies and series and books protected by copyright.
As all the information that was published by the users was managed, they quickly found an excellent platform to be able to offer links to movies and series, as well as books, completely free of charge. The only requirement of this web page to be able to access this type of content was check in.
All the content was distributed in different categories to make it easier to find the information that the user needed at all times. In addition, it included a search engine with which we could find any other type of content available very quickly and easily.
The ads that were displayed allowed the platform to be maintained and were not intrusive like those that we can find on download websites, which is why Taringa quickly became an ideal platform for downloading any type of content protected by copyright.
In 2009, the company was valued at 20 million US dollars and those responsible stated that they did not plan to sell the company, at least in the next few years, despite the fact that Facebook was hot on its heels as it was already available in Spanish.
the problems begin
It was a matter of time before problems began to reach this platform. It all started in 2011, when the National Court of Appeals of Argentina sued the owners of the website for copyright infringement and accuse them of being ultimately responsible for user posts.
For several years, those responsible for Taringa refused to remove the links, alleging that their website was a website to share, and that no content protected by copyright was hosted. However, in 2014 they announced that they were removing all links that violated copyrights from movies, series and books.
Since then, Taringa’s numbers have been dropping considerably and limiting its activity to Latin America. In the year 2019, it sold to the Argentine blockchain company IOVLabs, which currently manages it. The current design of the platform is similar to a blog with a design, even in colors, like Facebook, but focused on news from Argentina and neighboring countries.
Alternatives
if we search alternatives to Taringa To download content protected by copyright without resorting to torrent downloads, the website we are looking for is Cuevana, a website unrelated to the lawsuits and that continues to function without any problems. If we are looking for an alternative as a social network, the number of options is very wide: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Mastodon, although the latter still has a long way to go.
