7 ms·

Kim Dotcom’s Mega Opens For Early-Access Users

61 points by lleims 14y ago

mbetter 14y ago
Just remember that this is mega.co.nz and not mega.co.ns, the world's largest Lisp repository.
modeless 14y ago
I thought I heard that Mega was going to be partially funded by browser extensions that replace ads on third-party sites with Mega-affiliated ads. Is that not actually going to happen? It was the one part of the new Mega that sounded really shady.
- josso 14y ago
  You are thinking of Megabox which is supposedly[1] going to launch later this year. [1] http://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-megabox-to-launch-a-few-months-after-mega-121224/ http://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-megabox-to-launch-a-few-mont...
  - modeless 14y ago
    Ah, thanks! I wasn't aware of the difference.
- rayiner 14y ago
  Copyright infringement on a mass scale: not shady. Replacing ads with other ads: shady. -_-
  - white_devil 14y ago
    Have you ever downloaded copyrighted material with BitTorrent?
  - htf 14y ago
    I guess it depends on one's opinion about copyright law.
    - rayiner 14y ago
      Sure, but I think a lot of people have inconsistent opinions re: copyright law. I find it a little odd that people who oppose copyright on freedom grounds have no problem with advertising, even though advertising industry wouldn't exist at anywhere near its present scale without trademark law, which creates far more dire freedom-related concerns. I'd go further to say that this cognitive dissonance is the product of how money is made in Silicon Valley 2.0: through advertising rather than sales of content.
      - htf 14y ago
        Yes! Trademark creates huge freedom concerns. For what it's worth, I don't think there's anything shady about an extension that replaces the ads in your browser. Web users can already install AdBlock. Or they can hide the ads with post-it notes on their monitor. If that means lost revenue for the ad-based websites, that's a problem with their business model. You can't blame the extension developers for that.
      - htf 14y ago
        I wonder how much advertising depends on trademark law. I suppose that, without trademarks, companies would advertise their domain name instead of their company name.
        rayiner 14y ago
        While domains are unique, how does it help Prada, Tiffany's, etc? It makes no difference whether the copy-cats are selling rip-offs marked "tiffanys.com" out of a cart. There is also more to trademark that just protecting marks. Trademark protects many aspects of the brand (see: trade dress, dilution, tarnishment, etc). Companies spend a lot of money advertising because brands are valuable, and trademark basically protects brands. Branding makes goods less fungible, and is really the only reason companies like Prada or Ralph Lauren can sustain such high margins in what would otherwise be total commodity markets. When brands cease to have meaning to consumers, you end up with what you see in the PC industry: a race to the bottom that eats up all your margins. Why does advertising support so much of the internet? It's a $500 billion industry world-wide, that's why. Without branding, protected by trademark, I think it would be a fraction of the size. And I don't think it would necessarily be a bad thing.
edu 14y ago
It looks like and unexciting competitor for Google Drive, and Google Drive work pretty, pretty well. Sure, it doesn't have the client-side data encryption and the price per GB is higher, but I doubt the Mega email/apps can stand a round vs Gmail/Apps.
- joenathan 14y ago
  When did Google Drive start offering 50GB of storage for free?
karnajani 14y ago
mega.co.nz is showing 'access denied' when I tried accessing the site. Edit: Looks like the article mentioned that on the last paragraph. It has to do with early access protection.
lubos 14y ago
Aren't we talking a lot about freemium models here? This thing is going to implode, there is no way it will ever break-even. There are three requirements any freemium model needs to meet to be successful. 1.) Large addressable market 2.) Minimal marginal costs per free user 3.) Enough features in premium tier to convert sizable portion of free users I think the only point 1 is met. Giving 50 GB of free storage to free users is going to cost up to $5 per user per month. That's insane. The cost should be no more than a few cents. And how many users will ever need more than 50 GB? 0.1%? therefore point 3.) is broken too. Not to mention premium tier pricing is too cheap to make it profitable even without free users. Mega will shut the door as soon as it runs out of investor's money.
- kordless 14y ago
  > cost up to $5 a month Your opinion. Storage is constantly getting cheaper.
  - joenathan 14y ago
    Agreed and not to mention that most people won't use anything close to the 50GB, combine that with the deduplication plans they have and you have a very different scenario.
    - lubos 14y ago
      they say, all files will be client-side encrypted which won't allow them to "deduplicate" anything.
      - joenathan 14y ago
        There was a discussion the other day on how this was possible, where a hash would be created and that would allow for both encryption and deduplication. Let me see if I can find it.
        lubos 14y ago
haclifford 14y ago
What function does a half baked google docs clone serve here?
- phpnode 14y ago
  He's doing his best to be comparable to Google and it provides a thin veil of legitimacy. The core business will still be based around copyright infringement, this is all just "plausible denyablity" in action. Interesting to see how it plays out.
  - Karunamon 14y ago
    >based around copyright infringement sigh
FredFredrickson 14y ago
Am I the only one who just yawned when Megaupload was taken down? I have no ill-will towards the people who run or use that (or those types of) site, and I don't really like how the government handled the Megaupload thing, but with the proliferation of cloud storage sites hosted by Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Dropbox, etc., it just seems stupid to subject yourself to all the security issues, fake download buttons, ads, etc. that you find on sites like this.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  MegaUpload fulfilled a very different purpose from those other sites. There were no security issues, that's pure FUD. And you could disable all ads by paying. Or by using JDownloader (free).
  - res0nat0r 14y ago
    >MegaUpload fulfilled a very different purpose from those other sites. Yeah. Piracy. That's why it isn't around anymore.
- lmm 14y ago
  A few months after the takedown I went in search of a particular documentary that I knew existed. It's specific to a small subculture and a particular point in time; to the best of my knowledge it's never been released on DVD and most likely never will be. Arguably it would be no great loss to history if it were gone forever - but it was interesting to me. More than the big, famous things, it's little works like this that make up our culture. I searched, and searched, and couldn't find it - just hundreds of dead links to Megaupload. There will be a copy in the BBC archives, but will anyone ever see it again? That experience makes me take Mega's side in all this. (I eventually found it on an fserv that I swear was being hosted on dialup, but that's another story)
  - visarga 14y ago
    I still regret the destruction of MP3.com. I took a liking to some music from there. It was a vibrant community.
rikacomet 14y ago
Which is better? Dropbox or Mega?
- Nux 14y ago
  Batman!
RandallBrown 14y ago
The real question is will this become the ad-laden bastion of illegal movies and tv shows that MegaVideo was before it was taken down? While annoying to use, it sure was convenient when you wanted to watch a show or movie that was impossible to buy legally.
xs 14y ago
From the mega website "Mega are looking for investors". Can someone explain why they'd do that? Kim has more than enough money to cover all of the costs of this site yet he'd rather get investors? I never understood when to use my own money or raise money for my startup.
- mylittlepony 14y ago
  I think it's to reduce the risk, and maximize its potential. Unless your company is already successful, I think selling 49% is always a good idea.
- X-Istence 14y ago
  His money was seized by the government ... how exactly does he have enough money?
AlexDanger 14y ago
The outsourced storage model is interesting. http://kim.com/mega/#/hosting http://kim.com/mega/#/hosting Does this shotgun approach to storage offer them extra protection against law enforcement? Or is it just a way to try and minimise storage costs. My guess is both.

61 points by lleims 14y ago

Just remember that this is mega.co.nz and not mega.co.ns, the world's largest Lisp repository.

I thought I heard that Mega was going to be partially funded by browser extensions that replace ads on third-party sites with Mega-affiliated ads. Is that not actually going to happen? It was the one part of the new Mega that sounded really shady.

josso 14y ago
You are thinking of Megabox which is supposedly[1] going to launch later this year. [1] http://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-megabox-to-launch-a-few-months-after-mega-121224/ http://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-megabox-to-launch-a-few-mont...
- modeless 14y ago
  Ah, thanks! I wasn't aware of the difference.
rayiner 14y ago
Copyright infringement on a mass scale: not shady. Replacing ads with other ads: shady. -_-
- white_devil 14y ago
  Have you ever downloaded copyrighted material with BitTorrent?
- htf 14y ago
  I guess it depends on one's opinion about copyright law.
  - rayiner 14y ago
    Sure, but I think a lot of people have inconsistent opinions re: copyright law. I find it a little odd that people who oppose copyright on freedom grounds have no problem with advertising, even though advertising industry wouldn't exist at anywhere near its present scale without trademark law, which creates far more dire freedom-related concerns. I'd go further to say that this cognitive dissonance is the product of how money is made in Silicon Valley 2.0: through advertising rather than sales of content.
    - htf 14y ago
      Yes! Trademark creates huge freedom concerns. For what it's worth, I don't think there's anything shady about an extension that replaces the ads in your browser. Web users can already install AdBlock. Or they can hide the ads with post-it notes on their monitor. If that means lost revenue for the ad-based websites, that's a problem with their business model. You can't blame the extension developers for that.
    - htf 14y ago
      I wonder how much advertising depends on trademark law. I suppose that, without trademarks, companies would advertise their domain name instead of their company name.
      - rayiner 14y ago
        While domains are unique, how does it help Prada, Tiffany's, etc? It makes no difference whether the copy-cats are selling rip-offs marked "tiffanys.com" out of a cart. There is also more to trademark that just protecting marks. Trademark protects many aspects of the brand (see: trade dress, dilution, tarnishment, etc). Companies spend a lot of money advertising because brands are valuable, and trademark basically protects brands. Branding makes goods less fungible, and is really the only reason companies like Prada or Ralph Lauren can sustain such high margins in what would otherwise be total commodity markets. When brands cease to have meaning to consumers, you end up with what you see in the PC industry: a race to the bottom that eats up all your margins. Why does advertising support so much of the internet? It's a $500 billion industry world-wide, that's why. Without branding, protected by trademark, I think it would be a fraction of the size. And I don't think it would necessarily be a bad thing.

edu 14y ago

It looks like and unexciting competitor for Google Drive, and Google Drive work pretty, pretty well. Sure, it doesn't have the client-side data encryption and the price per GB is higher, but I doubt the Mega email/apps can stand a round vs Gmail/Apps.

joenathan 14y ago
When did Google Drive start offering 50GB of storage for free?

karnajani 14y ago

mega.co.nz is showing 'access denied' when I tried accessing the site. Edit: Looks like the article mentioned that on the last paragraph. It has to do with early access protection.

lubos 14y ago

Aren't we talking a lot about freemium models here? This thing is going to implode, there is no way it will ever break-even. There are three requirements any freemium model needs to meet to be successful. 1.) Large addressable market 2.) Minimal marginal costs per free user 3.) Enough features in premium tier to convert sizable portion of free users I think the only point 1 is met. Giving 50 GB of free storage to free users is going to cost up to $5 per user per month. That's insane. The cost should be no more than a few cents. And how many users will ever need more than 50 GB? 0.1%? therefore point 3.) is broken too. Not to mention premium tier pricing is too cheap to make it profitable even without free users. Mega will shut the door as soon as it runs out of investor's money.

kordless 14y ago
> cost up to $5 a month Your opinion. Storage is constantly getting cheaper.
- joenathan 14y ago
  Agreed and not to mention that most people won't use anything close to the 50GB, combine that with the deduplication plans they have and you have a very different scenario.
  - lubos 14y ago
    they say, all files will be client-side encrypted which won't allow them to "deduplicate" anything.
    - joenathan 14y ago
      There was a discussion the other day on how this was possible, where a hash would be created and that would allow for both encryption and deduplication. Let me see if I can find it.
      - lubos 14y ago

haclifford 14y ago

What function does a half baked google docs clone serve here?

phpnode 14y ago
He's doing his best to be comparable to Google and it provides a thin veil of legitimacy. The core business will still be based around copyright infringement, this is all just "plausible denyablity" in action. Interesting to see how it plays out.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  >based around copyright infringement sigh

FredFredrickson 14y ago

Am I the only one who just yawned when Megaupload was taken down? I have no ill-will towards the people who run or use that (or those types of) site, and I don't really like how the government handled the Megaupload thing, but with the proliferation of cloud storage sites hosted by Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Dropbox, etc., it just seems stupid to subject yourself to all the security issues, fake download buttons, ads, etc. that you find on sites like this.

w1ntermute 14y ago
MegaUpload fulfilled a very different purpose from those other sites. There were no security issues, that's pure FUD. And you could disable all ads by paying. Or by using JDownloader (free).
- res0nat0r 14y ago
  >MegaUpload fulfilled a very different purpose from those other sites. Yeah. Piracy. That's why it isn't around anymore.
lmm 14y ago
A few months after the takedown I went in search of a particular documentary that I knew existed. It's specific to a small subculture and a particular point in time; to the best of my knowledge it's never been released on DVD and most likely never will be. Arguably it would be no great loss to history if it were gone forever - but it was interesting to me. More than the big, famous things, it's little works like this that make up our culture. I searched, and searched, and couldn't find it - just hundreds of dead links to Megaupload. There will be a copy in the BBC archives, but will anyone ever see it again? That experience makes me take Mega's side in all this. (I eventually found it on an fserv that I swear was being hosted on dialup, but that's another story)
- visarga 14y ago
  I still regret the destruction of MP3.com. I took a liking to some music from there. It was a vibrant community.

rikacomet 14y ago

Which is better? Dropbox or Mega?

Nux 14y ago
Batman!

RandallBrown 14y ago

The real question is will this become the ad-laden bastion of illegal movies and tv shows that MegaVideo was before it was taken down? While annoying to use, it sure was convenient when you wanted to watch a show or movie that was impossible to buy legally.

xs 14y ago

From the mega website "Mega are looking for investors". Can someone explain why they'd do that? Kim has more than enough money to cover all of the costs of this site yet he'd rather get investors? I never understood when to use my own money or raise money for my startup.

mylittlepony 14y ago
I think it's to reduce the risk, and maximize its potential. Unless your company is already successful, I think selling 49% is always a good idea.
X-Istence 14y ago
His money was seized by the government ... how exactly does he have enough money?

AlexDanger 14y ago

The outsourced storage model is interesting. http://kim.com/mega/#/hosting http://kim.com/mega/#/hosting Does this shotgun approach to storage offer them extra protection against law enforcement? Or is it just a way to try and minimise storage costs. My guess is both.