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I can vouch for Kim's positive traits. He also has negative traits, as do we all - but I don't know much about them. However he was a customer of AdBrite (a la
by pud 14y ago
I can vouch for Kim's positive traits. He also has negative traits, as do we all - but I don't know much about them.
However he was a customer of AdBrite (a large ad network I founded around 2000) and I spoke with him via Skype many times around 2002. AdBrite is kinda like AdSense in that you can run our ads on your site and make money. And he was running AdBrite on one of his sites.
I don't remember which site of Kim's it was, and I don't remember why we had to kick them out for T&C infraction.
Regardless, he didn't like the AdBrite logo (which I paid a lot for) and told me his designers could make a better one. They did, and Kim let me use it for free. AdBrite raised around $40M using the logo Kim & his team designed for us. And I'm grateful.
AdBrite recently changed logos again so it's not there now. But here's the original (my designer)
http://www.storesonline.com/members/963920/uploaded/adbrite_logo.gif http://www.storesonline.com/members/963920/uploaded/adbrite_...
And here's Kim's, that we ended up using for years:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MsUpdWwPgms/UFOcvPMS74I/AAAAAAAAAW4/1q8BUYOvuIs/s400/adbrite-logo.jpg http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MsUpdWwPgms/UFOcvPMS74I/AAAAAAAAAW...
The differences are subtle but I believe it made a significant improvement to our brand.
And regardless if you think Kim is a brilliant entrepreneur or a criminal -- you can't deny that he makes very high quality products that people love to use. There's something we can all learn from that.
Thanks for the logo, Kim.
- jyap 14y agoThe logos are practically the same. Cool story though.
- mojowo11 14y agoThe logos were so similar that when I opened them in tabs, I began to question whether the original post was a joke. I'm still not really sure what's going on.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- tux1968 14y agoIt really must be a mistake or a joke.
- haberman 14y agoThey are clearly different; one is 3d. I'm not a designer so can't comment on which one is better, but even I can see that they're different. :)
- wilfra 14y agoAre you sure you clicked both of them? The first had a really harsh and strong border and looked almost 3D, but in a cheap and bad way. The second is much more subdued and 2D. Both of them would look very dated today but this was in the early 2000's.
- pud 14y agoHere's an image of both logos next to each other. http://tinyurl.com/c32hw83 http://tinyurl.com/c32hw83 Kim got rid of the 3D, made the colors more bold, and removed some of the outlines. The changes also had the effect of making the word "AdBrite" appear larger, even though (in this comparison) the images are the same size. Subtle, but was meaningful to me. Because (a) I liked his version better, and (b) In all my years entrepreneuring, it's the first time someone -- unsolicited -- offered to improve my logo for free. Who does that?
- haberman 14y agoFYI, your link returns "Oops, we encountered an error. Access denied. You have accessed a location on this server that is not available. You may need to Sign in to your account to access this page."
- btipling 14y agoI don't like either of them, but if I had to choose one I'd pick the 3D one, it looks smoother and the red in non-3D version is really emotionally negative, like it's the kind of red that makes you angry or scared.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- cloudwalking 14y agoKim's version is definitely better. It's much simpler and doesn't rely on superfluous visual effects. The shape of the logo comes through, and it uses fewer colors -- both of which make it much more recognizable.
- zerostar07 14y agoRemind of certain detergent(s)
- BallinBige 14y agoahh AdBrite. I remember trading ad impressions with your nextwork. ad tech was hot during those times!
- BallinBige 14y agoahh AdBrite. I remember trading ad impressions with your nextwork. around the right media exchange days.. ad tech was hot during those times!
- sanswork 14y agoIt still is. Ad:tech NY is next week.
- PostOnce 14y agoDon't know much about his negative traits? He was convicted (on separate occasions years apart) of computer fraud, embezzlement, insider trading, and data espionage (carding/etc). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom#Criminal_investigations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Dotcom#Criminal_investigati... I particularly don't like Kim because I find him a walking insult to honest entrepreneurs. Getting rich off of other peoples' work (Megaupload) is shameful, and while everyone else is out there working hard trying to make it legitimately (and often failing), this guy is out there getting rich off of theft, dishonesty, and outright criminal action, and being treated as some kind of hero for it. I don't like the way the investigation has been handled, but that doesn't make Kim a good guy.
- nikcub 14y agoIn your mind how do you distinguish Megaupload and Youtube?
- res0nat0r 14y agoBecause youtubes primary purpose for existing doesn't depend on copyright infringement. MU was raided because of their alleged blatant infringement and non DMCA good faith compliance.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- nikcub 14y agoI suggest you read the evidence in Viacom vs YouTube, their founders admitted as much in internal emails that most of the early traffic was copyright material. http://www.fastcompany.com/1588353/steal-it-and-other-internal-youtube-emails-viacoms-copyright-suit http://www.fastcompany.com/1588353/steal-it-and-other-intern... The real answer to my hypothetical question is that there is no difference. One just happens to be run by a German hacker while the other by upstanding citizens of Silicon Valley. One beat a civil lawsuit while the other has the full force of the US government trying to lock him up for life with a criminal conspiracy case (a bullshit law used to catch mafia figures).
- dutchbrit 14y agoThat's a pretty cool story :)