In such a scenario, if someone says business of floppy disk
is booming, it is bound to surprise everyone. The news appeared a few days ago
and since then has taken social media by storm. Users are astonished by the
claim made by Tom Persky, a California-based businessman who runs an online
disk recycling service.
Mr Persky told news agency Reuters that he has built a
reliable customer base and sells 500 floppy disks every day.
"People who go in the back of their warehouse and might
find a pallet or two of the floppy disks and they're about to take them to the
dump... They may call us up and say, 'Hey, will you take these off our hands?'
And we say, 'Happily, yes," Reuters quoted him as saying.
The claims have led to a huge discussion on social media,
with many users on Reddit mentioning where these floppy disks are still used.
"I was at a friends house a few years back, and she is
a professional seamstress. She had a big fancy embroidery machine there, and I
asked about it since I'd never seen one. She started explaining and then said
"You're a computer guy. Do you happen to have any 3.5" floppies you
aren't using?" And that's why she wanted them. She said she's always on
the lookout for more, because her machine requires them and she would have
trouble getting more," said a user.
"Makes sense considering the amount of 20-30 year old
planes still in service," commented another.
Other users pointed out that the US government still relies
on fax, which is has a "ridiculously easy" interface and "you
can't get malware via it".
Others mentioned how Japan still heavily relies on floppy
disks, and give the data only on these primitive storage devices.
A few months ago, Japan's Minister for Digital Affairs, Karo
Tono, had vowed to end the practice of submitting data through these storage
devices.
In a review, the Japan government found more than 1,900
rules that require use of floppy disks to share data with the government.