On Sunday, Kim Dotcom’s Mega.co.nz finally launched after a year of preparation and rebuilding since the original Megaupload was shut down in early 2012. Dotcom held a massive media event in New Zealand to celebrate the launch, and provided more details as to what his goals are with this latest venture.
The Next Web reports that Dotcom announced at the Mega launch media event that the service has gained over 1 million users within a day. It’s a fantastic start, but the service still has a ways to go before it reaches the levels seen with the original Megaupload.
At the event, Dotcom shared some more details about Mega and other upcoming projects like Megabox. First and foremost, he assured the audience that something like Megaupload won’t happen again because his team “scrutinized every pixel to ensure it’s built from the ground up to adhere to the law.” As for the 220 jobs lost when Megaupload was shut down, Dotcom says he plans to offer every one of them their jobs back while creating a few hundred jobs in New Zealand. As for Megabox, he says the service will launch in six months.
Of course, a concern is that Hollywood and the music industry may not appreciate the relaunch of the Mega brand. To them, Dotcom says he he wants “to find a diplomatic solution.” To further elaborate, he says that “the wiser thing to is to start a dialog to solve this problem between Hollywood and the Internet. We can solve this by sitting down together.” He extended the same offer to President Barack Obama despite the fact that Obama’s administration are the ones leading the prosecution in the states.
Speaking of movies, Dotcom teased on Facebook that he also plans to revive Megavideo in a slightly different format. Just like Megabox, he fully intends to shake up the industry with Megamovie. It’s only a tease at the moment so details are scarce, but it seems like a service that would allow movie studios to sell their films directly to consumers while retaining more profit compared to other services like iTunes or Amazon Instant Video. Considering that Megabox is still six months out, it will probably be a while before we see anything more on Megamovie.
So, what will Dotcom do now that Mega has been launched? He said that he plans to take a step back from the public eye for a while. During that time, he will be writing a book about his experiences over the last year. He also wants to take a break because he doesn’t want “to be seen as someone who is always in the media.” He can’t escape the public eye completely, however, as he will be attending court a lot over the course of the year as his extradition hearing approaches.
