10-18-2008: the domain Thingiverse.com was registered

It soon became the world's largest library of free 3D printing models.

On October 18, 2008, Thingiverse.com was registered — a domain that has now hosted the largest library of free 3D models for the past 16 years. Initially, it was an independent platform, then became part of MakerBot (which is largely responsible for its global popularity), and was later left to operate on its own for years under the corporate umbrella of Stratasys. For the past two years, it has been developing under the guidance of UltiMaker — the American-Dutch team formed by the merger of Ultimaker and MakerBot.

I would venture to say that the creation of Thingiverse was as significant a milestone in the development of 3D printing as the filing of the stereolithography patent by Charles Hull or the launch of the RepRap project by Adrian Bowyer. The mere fact that people had access to 3D printers did not solve all the challenges. Even the ability to build them themselves or buy them at affordable prices didn't address every issue. To make use of them, they needed 3D models. Not only because they couldn't design them on their own but because they needed these models to even become interested in 3D printing in the first place.

And Thingiverse was the place for that.

Thingiverse was founded by Zach "Hoeken" Smith and Bre Pettis — key figures in the RepRap community in the USA. The platform officially launched in 2008, although initially, it operated on a very small scale. A crucial aspect of Thingiverse from the very beginning was its openness. The platform strongly aligned with the spirit of open source, encouraging creators to share their projects with the entire community without restrictions, much like the ethos of the RepRap movement.

Following the debut of MakerBot, Thingiverse quickly gained recognition. MakerBot 3D printers fueled the demand for ready-to-print models, which encouraged users to engage with the platform. New features were gradually introduced: options to rate projects and a comment system were added, which helped build an active user community eager to share their ideas.

In 2013, MakerBot was acquired by Stratasys, and Thingiverse's development significantly slowed down. Stratasys focused more on GrabCAD, which was targeted at industry and engineers, while Thingiverse drifted along, eventually becoming somewhat of a relic in the 3D model landscape by the end of the 2010s.

Competitors took advantage of this situation — MyMiniFactory, Cults, Printables, and the rapidly growing newcomer, MakerWorld.

After the merger of Ultimaker and MakerBot, Thingiverse was restructured and improved. It still hosts a massive library of models — around 6.8 million, compared to the mere 0.8 million on the competing platform Printables. And the number of models is growing, which gives hope that under the leadership of UltiMaker, Thingiverse will regain its former glory.

Source: www.stratasys.com