Tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom is back with a vengeance. After suffering an armed raid by the US police and the forced shut down of his file-sharing website Megaupload five years ago, he announced that he is relaunching MegaUpload.
Kim Dotcom’s Net Worth as of 2019: $200 million
Kim Dotcom is bigger than life. Bigger than big. The flamboyant entrepreneur was born as Kim Schmitz, in Kiel, West Germany. His mother was Finnish and his father was German. He was a troubled kid growing up, and began hacking at an early age. When I think Kim Dotcom, I think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Except he wasn’t quite as lucky as Lisbeth Salander.
2001 – 2005
In 2001, most of Dotcom’s income came from his startup Kimvestor, which he valued at 200 million euros. With an insanely fat wallet, the 27-year-old loved to flaunt.
One time, he spent $1 million chartering a 240-foot luxury yacht and brought it in to Monte Carlo harbour during the 2000 Monaco Formula One Grand Prix (the world’s shared dream). He threw lavish parties well attended by Playboy bunnies and royalties alike. Prince Rainier of Monaco, just to name an example.
Aside from yachts, he also likes cars. Kim Dotcom owned at least 18 luxury cars – including a 1959 pink Cadillac. Excellent taste, Kim.
2005 – 2012
Kim Schmitz changed his last name to Dotcom in 2005, in homage to the stock market bubble, which made him a millionaire. At the time, he was living in Hong Kong, where he set up Megaupload.
Megaupload is essentially an online storage warehouse. Millions of people from across the globe used MegaUpload to store and access copies of TV shows, feature films, songs, porn, and software. At the height of the site’s popularity, it drew in over 50 million users per day. Eventually it had over 150 employees, US$175 million revenues.
But the good times didn’t last. In 2012, the US government shut down MegaUpload accusing it of internet piracy. US authorities said MegaUpload cost film studios and record companies more than $500 million by encouraging users to store and share copyrighted material, such as movies and TV shows.
In his own defense, Dotcom argued Megaupload is merely a storage facility, whether the content was acquired through legal or illegal means by the users is none of his business. Makes sense. Just as if you owned a parking lot, you’re not going to jail because some guy parked a stolen vehicle on your lot.
Or would you?
After Megaupload was shutdown, Dotcom set up Mega a year later. It is a cloud storage service which uses encryption to protect its users from government or third party “spies” from invading the privacy of its users. The site already has 180 million registered users and it has allowed him to earn more than $40 million just in 2011 alone.
2012 – 2015
On January 20, 2012, Kim Dotcom’s mansion in New Zealand was raided by the police. 76 officers and two helicopters came down like hail. Himself and three others were arrested. Assets worth $17 million were seized: eighteen luxury cars, including a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe with a price tag of $400,000, giant screen TVs and works of art. Dotcom’s bank accounts were frozen denying him access to $175 million in cash, the contents of 64 bank accounts world-wide, government bonds and money from numerous PayPal accounts.
Dotcom is looking at 55 years in prison due the operation of Megaupload.com. If Dotcom is convicted, all his assets would have to be handed over to pay for the alleged $500 million in damages to the entertainment industry. Dotcom would be lucky if he doesn’t end up in the red.
2016 – 2017
He may have been accused, raided, and arrested, but he’s still standing here in front of you. Over the summer, Dotcom announced in a series of tweets his grand plans for a relaunch of the site on January 20th, 2017 – exactly five years after the day his home was raided by the police.
On the 2017 site, previous members would see their accounts reinstated with a free upgrade to premium privileges, storage capacity would be expanded, and there would be no data-transfer limits.
If he manages to pull off his next billion while on bail, that would be quite somethin’.
2018
Founder of the now-defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, Kim Dotcom is wholeheartedly backing bitcoin cash and predicted rise.
2019
Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom announced his wife Elizabeth will join the legal team for the appeal his extradition to the United States.
