Many reports and leaked information about the tech industry have been revealed to the world, thanks to the famous, renowned leakster @evleaks.
@evleaks, who revealed his name earlier as Evan Blass, has officially announced his retirement on his twitter handle. The reasons cited for this move is that he cannot afford the amount of time and investment as there is almost no returns.
@evleaks, Evan Blass has 187,000 followers with more than 1,450 tweets with leaked information from various tech brands such as Apple, HTC, Samsung, HTC, Microsoft and a lot more.
In an interview to The Next Web, Blass mentioned reason for retiring as ‘somewhat complicated’. He said that at the end of all the hard work, it finally comes down to money. “Trying to monetise a stream of Twitter leaks is not easy. First I tried monthly sponsorships. Then, weekly. Then single sponsored tweets. I took donations — felt like online panhandling,” he added.
He went on to say, “I also started a website, and it’s actually done somewhat respectably, but with all the leaks going out on Twitter anyway, people have little incentive to visit, and most of my tech-savvy-heavy audience seem to be pretty heavy ad-block users, as well. It all adds up to an unsustainable living, and with a progressively worsening disease [Ed; Blass was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis], I need to make sure I can prepare myself better for the future, financially.”
All good things must come to an end. Thank you for an amazing two years. [RETIREMENT]
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 3, 2014Blass is looking for another career now. Evan Blass worked with Engadget and PocketNow after quitting and starting his twitter profile and a parallel website to cater to leaked information from his well-known and trusted sources. When asked about how he managed to get his leaked information, he replied “Good sources, good colleagues to bounce ideas off of, and good luck.”
Blass’ leaked information has been published on almost every tech blog and website throughout the internet. Though all the information might not have been completely true, most of them have a high rate of success. The major reason behind shutting down his leak service is the losses he is incurring. According to Blass, major followers are techies who come to his website for information. However, his website cannot place advertisements, his major source of income, as it is useless, since most techies use ad blockers, which blocks out the major source of his income.
Evan is now sure of the future of his website, but has decided that his twitter handle would now be is personal space and followers are still welcome.
If you want to fund @evleaks and convince him to make a comeback, you can contribute too. Indiegogo is running a campaign (organized by TK TechNews) to collect funds for Evan Blass. Click on this link and make your donation. This fund is to help Evan with Medical Costs and get him the necessary funds to be able to get healthy and return to the tech community.
Farewell Evan. We (and the whole tech industry) shall miss @evleaks. The Deccan Chronicle Tech team wishes you All the Very Best for your Future. Cheers!
