3 ms·

I want to hear more about the site and how it makes money and less about the man. The title could easily be "The mega-money world of Megaupload founder"

by naz 16y ago

holdenc 16y ago
Agreed. Did he really buy this house with money from premium megaupload subscriptions?
- edkennedy 16y ago
  MegaUpload/MegaVideo also has it's own self serve advertising network.
mpk 16y ago
Yes please. A +1 for more information on the business models of megaupload, rapidshare and similar services, preferably with some numbers.
barredo 16y ago
I'll try to summarize: First, their traffic: http://trends.google.com/websites?q=megaupload.com,rapidshare.com,digg.com,nytimes.com&geo=all&date=all&sort=0 http://trends.google.com/websites?q=megaupload.com,rapidshar... (compared with Digg & NYtimes.com) You can upload files to these sites, there are limits, but generally are avoided by splitting large files with RAR and such. Although, premium/pro users get larger limits and can upload more content. Then there are the people who download. Everytime you go you get a prompt similar to: are you a free or premium/pro user? if you are a paid user, you get to download files directly (with a cookie), but if you don't you get a interstitial with a countdown for several seconds (30-70 usually) and a lot of ads, and then, a link to direct download appears. The pricing goes like this: Megaupload (http://megaupload.com/?c=premium http://megaupload.com/?c=premium) 9.99€ for 1 month, 19.99€ for 3 months, 59.99€ for 1 year, 79.99€ for 2 years and 299.99€ for life. Rapidshare (http://rapidshare.com/premium.html http://rapidshare.com/premium.html) 6.99€ for 30 days, 16.99€ for 90 days, 29.99€ for 180 days and 54.99 for 365 days. Then, the use: I don't know in the US, but in Spain, Latin America and France these services are HUGE, and there are a LOT of them, like mushrooms in autumn. There are forums where people interchange links with copyrighted material everywhere, with huge traffic stats. In France the boom came when French Gov started pursuing P2P, almost instantly everyone I knew started paying for these kind of services to get direct download (and the service is quite fast) of movies, tvshows and whatnot.
- slig 16y ago
  With rapidshare, the person who uploaded the file gets 1 point each time the file he uploaded is download by a free user. Later, he can trade points for new premium accounts, that lasts for a 1 month, that he can sells directly to 3rd part using paypal for a lower price that rapidshare. That way, there's a huge incentive for uploaders to use rapidshare and promote their own uploaded files.

I want to hear more about the site and how it makes money and less about the man. The title could easily be "The mega-money world of Megaupload founder"

by naz 16y ago

I want to hear more about the site and how it makes money and less about the man. The title could easily be "The mega-money world of Megaupload founder"

holdenc 16y ago

Agreed. Did he really buy this house with money from premium megaupload subscriptions?

edkennedy 16y ago
MegaUpload/MegaVideo also has it's own self serve advertising network.

mpk 16y ago

Yes please. A +1 for more information on the business models of megaupload, rapidshare and similar services, preferably with some numbers.

barredo 16y ago

I'll try to summarize: First, their traffic: http://trends.google.com/websites?q=megaupload.com,rapidshare.com,digg.com,nytimes.com&geo=all&date=all&sort=0 http://trends.google.com/websites?q=megaupload.com,rapidshar... (compared with Digg & NYtimes.com) You can upload files to these sites, there are limits, but generally are avoided by splitting large files with RAR and such. Although, premium/pro users get larger limits and can upload more content. Then there are the people who download. Everytime you go you get a prompt similar to: are you a free or premium/pro user? if you are a paid user, you get to download files directly (with a cookie), but if you don't you get a interstitial with a countdown for several seconds (30-70 usually) and a lot of ads, and then, a link to direct download appears. The pricing goes like this: Megaupload (http://megaupload.com/?c=premium http://megaupload.com/?c=premium) 9.99€ for 1 month, 19.99€ for 3 months, 59.99€ for 1 year, 79.99€ for 2 years and 299.99€ for life. Rapidshare (http://rapidshare.com/premium.html http://rapidshare.com/premium.html) 6.99€ for 30 days, 16.99€ for 90 days, 29.99€ for 180 days and 54.99 for 365 days. Then, the use: I don't know in the US, but in Spain, Latin America and France these services are HUGE, and there are a LOT of them, like mushrooms in autumn. There are forums where people interchange links with copyrighted material everywhere, with huge traffic stats. In France the boom came when French Gov started pursuing P2P, almost instantly everyone I knew started paying for these kind of services to get direct download (and the service is quite fast) of movies, tvshows and whatnot.

slig 16y ago
With rapidshare, the person who uploaded the file gets 1 point each time the file he uploaded is download by a free user. Later, he can trade points for new premium accounts, that lasts for a 1 month, that he can sells directly to 3rd part using paypal for a lower price that rapidshare. That way, there's a huge incentive for uploaders to use rapidshare and promote their own uploaded files.