Kim Dotcom is going big with his new ‘Mega’ service, offering customers 50GB of free online storage. The massive amount of free data offered by the company far eclipses offers from Dropbox, SugarSync and other similar services.
Dotcom also promises that customers will not have to jump through tremendous hoops to receive the large amount of data. For example most service require referral signups and the use of other paid affiliate programs.
Mega will launch in New Zealand on Sunday with further launches around the world in the coming weeks.
Dotcom has also noted that Mega users who jump over from his former MegaUpload project will not receive premium status back at the time of launch. Kim says he plans to give original service users premium status but can not move forward with that plan until he receives “court permission or a case resolution.”
Users worried about the possible future closure of Mega can rest assured that Kim Dotcom is doing everything he can to protect user data. For example, users must download and install dedicated software that will encrypt files they are uploading. Files can only be decrypted by the user which means Mega itself is not responsible for those files.
Mega is also set to offer high-speed parallel batch uploading and downloading with resume capabilities. The service will also implement distributed hosting so files are not centrally stored by one hosting service provider.
The big question for Mega will be whether or not customers will trust the new service. Millions of MegaUpload customers with legitimate files stored on the service have yet to gain access to their personal files.
